School Board Meeting | July 27, 2021

001[Music] are we ready good afternoon ladies and gentlemen i would like to call the july 27 2021 regular school board meeting to order before we begin our meeting today i would like to ask for a moment of silence to honor dr damian moses principal of bach academy south in lake wales who passed away last week dr moses was a pillar in our education community and he leaves behind his wife melissa son damien and daughter karen please keep the moses family in your prayers now please join me in a moment of silence thank you so much now i would like to ask mr lynn wilson to give our invocation if you would all please stand for the invocation and remain standing for our pledge of allegiance mr wilson let's pray please god in heaven again we

002come to you with thankfulness in our hearts for the many wonderful blessings you bestowed upon us we are thankful for the opportunity to assemble here this evening and we we pray that you might be with us this evening we pray for the moses family we pray for superintendent our new superintendent i pray that you might guide him as he leads our school district we pray your hand on this meeting this evening you will guide our discussions and our decisions we offer this prayer on behalf of our school district and i offer this prayer in jesus name amen amen thank you so much mr wilson and now i'd like to ask dr william allen to lead us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the fire in the united states of america and to

003the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you and you may be seated and now we come to a very special part of our meeting tonight it is with great pleasure that i let everyone know that superintendent hyde is going to be taking his oath of office tonight with his family superintendent high would you please bring your family in superintendent hyde has with him i will wait till they come out superintendent hyde is joined by his wife patty his son freddy and his mom mrs chester who will be joining him for his swearing-in ceremony and i'd like to ask chief the honorable chief judge ellen masters who will be administering his oath of office superintendent hyde raise your right hand repeat after me i'm frederick r hyde

004hi fredrick r hyde do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that i will support protect and defend that i will support defend and protect the constitution and government the constitution and government of the united states and of the state of florida by the united states and of the state of florida that i am duly qualified that i am duly qualified to hold office under the constitution of the state to hold office under the constitution of the state and that i will well and faithfully perform and that i will well and faithfully perform the duties of superintendent of schools the duties of superintendent of schools on which now i am about to enter on which now i am about to enter so help me god so help me god congratulations thank you let's take some photos yes

005please go ahead everybody yeah the whole family there we go oh thank you awesome congratulations superintendent hyde we're so excited to have you on board yay and thank you mrs hyde freddie and mrs chester for joining us today it's been a pleasure getting to know you and we appreciate uh everyone moving to florida to allow superintendent hyde to take us to the next level so we thank you so much for having us awesome [Applause] exactly you hired the wrong person okay so our first item today board members is to accept the agenda superintendent hyde are there any revisions to the agenda as printed madam chairs member of the board yes there are several revisions item d3 approval of minutes we added minutes under item g1 consent agenda board items we added an item under h2

006consent agenda business services there was a revised attachment under k-6 consent agenda human resources a revised attachment k-7 consent agenda human resources a revised attachment s2 administrative legal report we added an item and under q2 public hearing we revised an attachment thank you superintendent hyde the chair will now entertain a motion to approve the agenda for july 27 2021 with the noted revisions do i have a motion and a second removed second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay motion carries unanimously the next item this evening is our special recognitions superintendent hyde would you lead us through our special recognitions today at this time i'd like to ask school board member lisa miller to step

007down for special recognitions good evening good evening welcome my name is nancy peary i'm the senior coordinator of visual arts for polk county schools i know most of you very well and it is my pleasure to introduce to you joe tedder our tax collector who has we are in our 15th year of kids tag art here and he is the creator of the statewide program right now and they have at this point put over a million dollars i think it's closer to 1.5 million into visual arts programs throughout the state and has put i think over a half million into polk county schools this money goes directly to the art teachers to spend on supplies but also it's undesignated funds so it helps with their training and with many other things like that and so

008we're very great grateful i always like to say it's the best business partnership in the state and so without further ado joe tedder thank you nancy i'd like to start off by congratulating superintendent hyde welcome to polk county we had the chance to meet the other night at a chamber function and i welcomed you at that time and we're here to help you in any way we can but i must tell you i'll be sending you a tax bill in november and you need to make sure you pay so uh don't forget that but um it's my pleasure i also wanted to take a moment that i have to thank the school board it has been a very very trying year and a half and i know you've had to make some really really tough

009decisions and i know there's endless hours of mental thinking about this praying about it trying to gather facts and then trying to make the best decision you can for our kids and our teachers and our parents and i know that's very hard i know when i when i had the opportunity to serve in the florida legislature prior to that i would watch news and i would sit there and i would have the answer to every single problem everything that came up though this is what you ought to do this is what you ought to do but when you're actually in the position of voting yes or no on these issues it becomes much more complicated and it's harder to find that right answer so i just as a as a parent uh and as a

010community individual and someone that's lived in polk county my whole life thank you for your service and your leadership during these tough times but i'm here today as i have the opportunity to do every single year and say some introduce you to the kids tag art uh superintendent hi this is a program as nancy said has been around for over 15 years and it started from actually the students the task letters office staff would be asked to go and do participate in the great american teach-in and if you can imagine me as a tax collector leaving my office to go speak to a bunch of third graders about the tax collector's office you're racking your brain what in the world am i going to tell these third graders that is interesting about our office so

011what i would do is i would grab all these specialty tags and i would take them and so i'd spend my 30 minutes going what's this tag oh it's a manatee tie guess where that money goes what's this tag what's this tag so that was allow that allowed me to do my great american teaching but the neat thing was is a few weeks later i would receive letters from these kids thanking me for coming to their class and they would draw their own tag as a way to express their thanks and we sat around the office and we said wouldn't it be neat if we could take what these kids are teaching us about using art as an expression and actually try to use that into the art program and have kids design their own

012tags and then sell these tags and let all those proceeds go back to the art classroom teachers and that's how this program started and as nancy said it is now just finishing the 15th year over half a million dollars has been raised and put back into the polk county art classroom teachers and it became such a neat program that other tax collectors started stealing it from us and now there are several tax literatures across the state to do this program and we've passed 1.5 million dollars that have been raised for the elementary art program through the kids tag art so this time every year we come and talk to you about the program and to let you know that every single classroom art classroom this year will receive 525 in addition to any proceeds they

013have and the sales it was important for us that the that every school that participated got a base amount of money because obviously some areas of our community because of social economic challenges maybe can't sell as many tags as everyone else so we wanted every single art teacher to get a base amount that they could use in their classroom then on top of that anything that they sell so it has been a wonderful program we're here to do one new thing for you we wanted to present to superintendent hyde a little um coin that we give all the students uh that are our top winners um and we thought like ali why aren't we doing this to the rest of the school board so this year we have a little coin for each one of

014you and next year we'll give you a little box that you can start collecting these coins and ultimately you'll have a box full of all these coins for all the different years that we've done this and then second thing is we always present to the district that has the most sales with an award and last year i believe it was sarah beth reynolds had it and sarah you're not the winner anymore this year the winner is lynn wilson his district for the most sales of the kids tag art so glenn you get the little plot [Applause] and uh i thought it was a traveling trophy i hear i was very close lynn i'm coming for you i think this is the time we take some sort of a picture with the check but as we're

015preparing for that uh margaret um uh faro uh margarita alfaro brandi haney from my office are the ones that volunteer their personal time to help minister this program it would not be possible without you our wonderful sponsors our main sponsor southern homes who gives 25 000 a year to this program and many other sponsors as well as the support of you the school board the superintendent's office and especially beth and um and nancy for their great support so we appreciate everybody so much for their support and thank you for your time today and if uh i'm not sure madam chair how we do this if you y'all i'll stand right there and then our photographer will will tell you okay yes he will he will tell you where to stand and did you mention what

016the check amount is for this year yes the check amount is for 40 779 dollars that is for the public school system but we also let the private schools and charter schools participate in this as well so overall i think it was about forty six thousand dollars wow terrific thank you so much squished together yes so while they take their photo board members i i will be registering three vehicles and a boat trailer so uh my three tags are up for grabs just saying my three my four tags are up for grabs whoever okay yeah really my district three i believe here i do think he's living in district one right thank you thank you sir amazing program appreciate you so much as always thank you at this time i'd like to ask jeanette crowley

017senior coordinator of public relations and strategic partnerships to come forward for the united way campaign recognition are you ready for me yeah ready okay yes of course thank you we have quite a large group but i'll go ahead and get started i am jeanette crowley senior coordinator of strategic partnerships also serve as the district campaign coordinator for united way of central florida for our district campaign with me i have christina kreiser-jackson president and ceo of united way of central florida as well as jess garcia our resource development manager from united way of central florida united way of central florida believes that every child should be given the opportunity to meet his or her potential in school and in life that everyone should have a fighting chance to support themselves and their families and that no

018one can do their best at work or school if they are hungry sick or in pain working with its partner agencies united way identifies problems within our community raises the funding and develops the solutions to solve those problems united way of central florida fights for the health education and financial stability of every individual in polk county they invest in teacher training parent education and early literacy services that improve vocabulary literacy skills school readiness scores as well as tutoring homework assistance and mentoring services for at-risk students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade i'm excited to share a 2020 district wide campaign results with you as celebrate our schools and department with the highest contributions raised towards last year's campaign because of the generous support of our employees polk county public schools raised almost 60 thousand dollars

019last year with 65 schools and 12 departments participating polk county public schools is a top supporter and contributor of a more among more than 500 companies and we rank number 13 in total giving as i call your school or department please come forward and say a few words and receive your certificate and gifts from united way in our elementary school category we have spesard el holland elementary who raised three thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars and i will say this is the largest amount raised by any school or department and it's always a battle for the top spot of the elementary and so i want to say congratulations again to you um and remaining the top spot so come forward please it is a true team effort at spessard al holland elementary and i would

020like to thank miss casey willis who chaired united way for us this year and we have a dynamic or a terrific trio two members are out in the audience who supported united way mr lewis rios and craig hilgenberg who lost in december to dixieland as an ap so congratulations to spencer holland and to the children of polk county with the givings of united way thank you in our middle school category we have kathleen middle who raised four dollars in their campaign um in remaining in that middle school spot again as well so congratulations to [Applause] i really got to give a shout out to our staff at kathleen middle they always come together and donate each year our students do a great job too and to miss gregory for letting us have fun with it

021each and every year so thank you thank you [Applause] in our high school category we have lake gibson senior high who raised 1 638 dollars [Applause] thank you it's just a pleasure to be here tonight and be recognized for this this is all about the lake gibson high school community that does a wonderful job of just giving and giving and giving over and over our staff does an outstanding job and we raised 1600 we usually raised about 3 000 one of our big events was canceled because of cove this year we're hopefully going to be able to bring that back and and stay and remain in this top spot i would like to thank my united way liaison ms diaz who has done this for 15 years now and talks me into all kind of

022good crazy stuff to do for our school and we'll continue to do that and understands my weird competitive nature that i have to win awesome in our combination school category we have fort meade middle senior who raised 2079 dollars [Applause] our teachers we might be small but we are mighty and our teachers definitely take pride in the united way because they get to see firsthand how our students and our families and our community are affected by that and the benefits that we get with us being such a large economically disadvantaged population so we want to definitely thank superintendent hyde the board and united way for the partnerships that we get to have and not the benefits that we get to wreak from it so thank you awesome thank you for our department who raised the

023most funds once again we have support services who raised two thousand two hundred and sixty nine dollar six sixty two dollars excuse me in 17 cents um i would just like to thank my family as support services for helping me this is my fourth year now and we have a lot of fun with united way and i couldn't do it without them and i would like to thank united way for all they do i'm always very like if anyone comes to me i'm able to help you know with the 211 number and they've been able to assist them so i want to thank you for that and it's weird times we live in and just thank you for being there and helping the community thank you [Applause] now i'd like to have christina christopher jackson

024come forward and say a few words good evening we are so grateful to be here tonight and to recognize some of the celebrations that you all are recognizing as well i loved it just a few minutes ago the superintendent came in and spoke to a few administrators and he said behind every great administrator is the great support network of their family well we feel the same way about this family here behind every great united way is a great polk county public school system and supporters and teachers and educators you all see it on a regular basis you meet with the kids you serve with the kids you love these kids and we're just so grateful to be part of that partnership we talked a lot about the the funds that were raised and the money

025that was raised but we wanted to share with you a little bit of where that money goes so in a typical year united way of central florida serves about 50 000 individuals this year of course as everyone has recognized has been in interesting years so over 70 000 were served by our programs and those are our traditional initiatives so we have early childhood education academic achievement financial stability health basic needs in the community school partnership i purposely left one out of there because the end hunger initiative hit this this community like we never expected and over 200 000 individuals were impacted by those in hunger drops our early childhood education helps with programs that provide services from birth to six we have our six success by six program we have a reading piles program and

026in a typical year we'd have 14 schools that would be hosting over 200 volunteers to serve serve over 400 students in addition to that we have our master teacher program because we know you all do amazing work and that you lead with your hearts and dedication and strength but a lot of teachers before they reach kindergarten don't know how to teach they don't know curriculum so they're helping those preschool students and those child care students learn and to be able to thrive in that environment i'm so grateful that one of my or my daughter gets to go to one of those child care centers that benefits because of the work that you all do in this united way campaign and then we have academic achievement and of course girls inc is one of those programs

027but we have boys and girls club boys scouts learning resource center and the list goes on and on over 60 partners that provide holistic services for our students in polk county public schools and then the crystal lake elementary school partnership this changed of course over the past year but there was food drops there was bike helmet fitting there were car seat fitting and i have to admit i'm glad my husband's not here today because when the partnership tested our car seat we realized that he had made it too strong over 20 of the families that showed up for that event did not have their car seats assembled correctly so while we didn't get to provide the traditional services that we were hoping for this year they proved they were continuing to serve we also in

028addition to that have the food drop as we mentioned and then we have children that are receiving and adults receiving services through the clinics so beyond that we just want to say thank you again thank you all for the heart and the spirit that you provide to united way and thank you for showing your support we are so grateful for all of you in improving lives and strengthening the community and we look forward to another fantastic year with the schools thank you thank you if we could get everybody to come together so we can get a group photo everybody squish in everybody squish that's really cool there we go you're welcome great job thank you so much madam chair that concludes special recognition for today's meeting thank you superintendent hyde the next item on our

029agenda is public comments on agenda items and i have several who have spoken to speak who have signed up to speak but before we do i would like to ask mr bridges our attorney to please review our protocols when it comes to public speakers mr bridges thank you madam chair ladies and gentlemen as a reminder to all speakers addressing the school board this evening there will be two opportunities for speakers 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 on the agenda for action and again at the end of the meeting for any speakers wishing to address matters that are not on the agenda for action if you wish to speak please fill out a speaker card available

030at the entrance each speaker shall be allotted three minutes to speak when you're recognized by the chair please give your name and address if you're affiliated with a group you may announce that as well please direct all of your comments to the chair and refrain from making personal attacks or using profanity ladies and gentlemen those are the rules thank you thank you so much mr bridges and the first person i have is mr keith leitzy it's mr leitzy here regarding the budget come forward of course of course keith leitzy uh painter from the c1 shop 1625 south st conway frost proof florida mr hyde new boss man good to see you i do want to speak on the budget tonight i listened to a little of the special meeting that we had or y'all had

031last week concerning the budget and the main thing and i've been saying this ever since i've been coming here for me tonight i'm here for me and guys like me um money it seems like it always has to be money the budget that was put forth one of the questions that was asked and i hope miss foreign calling her her name tonight but she asked a question too and i'm sorry i don't remember who it was that was sitting here and her question was steps how does steps work you know because it's been this just this big question that i've been here five years and it's been a question that nobody can seem to answer it's like nobody can ever answer it when i started it was one year three years five years i'm trying

032to make eye contact with all you guys because i feel like i just sit right here and don't don't look at everybody but it was one year three years five years i've been here five years i've received one step i've explained this last time that step was all of a sudden it said it's no longer steps it's levels how do i get my money um how do i get the money for the other guys that's in the same position that i am i feel like we fell in the crevice i thought we're an old i'm a painter when i was brought onto the school board i was required to do all the tests i've said this before paint walls set up the sprayer set up the pressure washer paint doors paint jams to prove that

033i was a painter i had to take the test to prove that i was a painter i'm stuck at 38 thousand dollars that's that's my salary that's public knowledge i'm not sending but uh i'm i'm stuck at thirty eight thousand dollars i should be making forty two thousand dollars thirty two hundred dollars a year that i feel that i is getting cheated from me when we go to the job i'm required to do the same job that the other guys on our crew do i'm a painter they're a painter they're they're they're making their money i don't understand how i can't get mine there's other people in the same position that men they're stuck where they can't get the money that they should be getting paid um i i just i i'm out of stance

034i just don't know and nobody can seem to answer this question tonight there's so many guys you know a custodian guy that that i'm not going to call his name but i guarantee i hear his name called 15 times a day at the school that we're working on right now mr so-and-so can you come to the office can you come to the office i asked him i said man do you hear that when you go to bed at night you know y'all are the face you know this is the face of the school board our new superintendent our school board the teachers the secretary that's the face you know that's who the public wants to see y'all are the pretty ones you know that's what i say y'all are the pretty ones that the public

035wants to see we're kind of the backbone you know we're the guys that's back there that you know i can't give the answers that the well-educated answers that the public i can't give that but what can i do i'm a hands-on kind of a guy you know we've got so many in a school where they're hands-on kind of people and we're stuck you know a lot of people said we're leaving you know they said we're tired we're gone so i'm here i say this real quick i got 20 seconds left before the microphone cuts out there was a kid that climbed on the roof and a couple of schools got away his painting man there was people all over the county from from this office from the the chairs the paramedics man i thought man

036if that would work for me i'd jump right in this floor right now tonight and jump down and make a big scene i don't think that would work for me y'all probably have me committed what can we do to get our money that's what we want what can we do to get our money thank you sir um next we have matthew eager and then after mr aeger richard galloway if he wants to walk towards the front here go ahead sir all right hi everybody how you doing well most of you know me or have heard of me anyway but we'll get to know each other soon and start out that i'm starting this off i'm going to talk about the budget believe it or not but uh i just want to let everybody know the

037uh some of you are familiar with the fabulous five mm-hmm fabulous five is no more we are now the furious four there's only four left county wide repaint painters right now they say they're gonna hire another one so we'll see and i'll take that right on to the budget the way the budget works and the way we don't get paid as employees is that more than likely we're down a painter we're responsible for close this consumer going to be 173 facilities and repainting for painters and more than likely we will not get another painter we will probably get a custodian or a groundskeeper to move up because they're in the system with seniority that we're gonna have to teach how to paint and chances are they will probably be nearing the age of 60. so

038the way that affects the budget is you have 173 facilities roughly you have four and a half painters uh last year we're on a 17 year rotation now we're probably going to go somewhere between 20 25 year rotation are the taxpayers going to let you let this go for 25 years no you're going to hire contractors contractors cost more money because there's profit involved i'm not in business less than making a profit so and you look around over half a million dollars and paying contracts to loan last year i guarantee you could have got more schools done with if we had our old crew if we had an actual crew and that is just what i know because i'm a painter that goes for everything roofers plumbers every day we see more and more con

039outside contractors and less and less employees every single day and i saw some little bit earlier today i'm not going to blame anybody but i have pictures everybody wants to see but i hear i don't know if there's a major disconnect between the real world and what you guys what funnels to you guys but filtration systems that are supposed to be in these schools y'all need to go and take a look that's all i have to say because they're not there um but what i would ask for all y'all on top of this personal thing but on the budget-wise is that on your agenda here there's millions millions and millions of dollars you're going to talk about the budget tonight why can't you budget steps for mr leichi why can't you budget a decent cost

040of living race um here's what the oh real quick inflation five point force from the federal government what you're actually offering us right now two percent and what steps thank you sir mr galloway and then daryl robertson hi good evening my name is richard galloway i live at 56 flamingo boulevard in winter haven i've been driving a school bus for y'all for 23 years i come to you today asking you to please give us a two dollar per hour raise and a one level increase why you may ask because this will retain good drivers and attendance you already have and entice more to come work for us we already have a shortage on our hand and it's not getting any better this is not a job for most of us most love what we do

041and watch our students grow up i know i have 23 years i've seen a lot of kids come and go um but it would be nice to be appreciated more than just thanks for what you do good job you know show us by keeping and keep us by giving us wages we deserve and let us not forget other parts of our support system the cafeteria workers custodians maintenance they all deserve better wages they have a lot of open ends to fill as well without the gears of the support staff and school buses wouldn't operate your buildings wouldn't get maintained and the children wouldn't be fed so think about us out here struggling to get by on a pay scale from 2016 with the 2021 cost of living when you decide our wages with our union

042i repeat i appreciate and respect the job you all do so please make it right so we don't lose any more good employees thank you for your time thank you sir mr robertson daryl robertson and after mr robertson would be jessica landers good evening my name is daryl robertson 169 browning circle winter haven florida welcome dr hyde thank you i haven't had a chance to meet you yet no personal attack on you i spoke with mr bridges after a meeting when we decided to hire dr hyde you found 18 000 more than what we were paying our last superintendent that's an eight percent raise our sub drivers that were starting at ten dollars an hour i understand are now starting at twelve dollars an hour that's a twenty percent raise and yet you're offering everybody

043else two percent does that not seem like a slap in the face it sure feels like it to me you and i spoke after one of the meetings and i've said this before but it seems to be falling on deaf ears these raises need to be a part of the budget how long are you going to kick the can down the road i'm getting to the age where i love my job and it's too old for me to start over somewhere else so yeah i'm probably going to stay at the whatever i'm making but the younger ones we're losing them right and left i have a niece that's starting august the 1st 15 an hour starting pay it's coming you've got to be able to compete with this if you want quality employees you want

044people not calling all the time saying how come my child's late to school all the time we don't have enough bus drivers we're having to cover routes we get no extra pay for covering the routes if it goes past your golden rod you may get 10 or 15 minutes or 30 minutes at the most 2 percent is unacceptable thank you thank you sir is miss landers here she's making her way forward after miss landers would be lisa burke ready i am ready good afternoon board my name is jessica landers i live at 200 avenue k southeast in winter haven you might know me from the district as noah i am your full-time courier before that i was your bus driver for six years and your sub carrier for four recently i just got able to

045be upgraded or not really upgraded appointed as your full-time courier because ours retired after 30 years they need so many bus drivers that it's hard for me to say hey come and be a bus driver because i love my job as a courier and i love my job as a bus driver but it's hard to recruit bus drivers if we don't get paid what we need to get paid it's hard to have kids in a building with no custodians how are you going to clean and cook after children if there's nobody there to work it's it's you can't do it i have so many people that goes man i really want to work i don't want to work during the summers i don't want to work weekends great be a bus attendant be a bus

046driver you know custodians you have the weekends off well how much do you pay full time 13.49 that don't make nothing for the longest time i was a single parent of four children on a bus driver pay maybe making twenty one thousand a year working two two days at the district and three of those at another school to help make ends meet not for my budget not for my paychecks but for the students because you're short custodians you're short food nutrition how are they going to get fed during the summer there's a manager that had to make over 140 to 150 lunches a week to feed students and no help why because nobody wants to nobody can do it so i'm asking for more money to where we can bring people in to want to

047work and stay and not just go to amazon or wendy's and make ten dollars an hour you have almost two thousand people making under eleven dollars an hour help us make people want to come and work for you it's a good job it's a really good job but they make more money staying at home on unemployment they make more money flipping burgers you need more money for school buses you need more money for custodians for nutrition help us keep people working here thank you thank you next we have lisa burke and then kathy lewis hey good evening i'm lisa burke president of ask me i live at 3100 fast trail in lake wales and i wanted to talk to you about some of the job descriptions that we've updated in some new positions we have

048one that will be strictly monitoring the esser funds that's going to make 67 000 a year this is what i'm worth to you 28 cents that's what you've grown you know that's what you're saying 15 years 28 cents no raise in 15 years and today some talk was done about contractors we have um ev systems going in that's 20 million dollars that'll be added to the assert funds contractors let me ask that as we put this and add them to the budget they don't do a good job as your employees do and and that's right to be honest because they don't want to go back through and redo it insurance we're talking about that was brought up here a little bit ago um that was never brought up in the superintendent's insurance committee meeting to

049be honest we've saved millions of dollars but a proposal has been talked about raising our insurance wow 25 but this is what i'm gonna get so i get to go in debt if we even talk about the insurance and prescriptions cost and everything gallons of milk have gone up we have custodians that's been here she's 30 some years you know what she's gonna get she's worth a few more of these that's not right like i said there was a class last week of what nine bus drivers they were doing in training i think we're down to one or two we're gonna be short people just raise the give them a decent raise and we will keep people that's what it will take to keep those loyal people that's been here for 15 20 years 10

050years 30 years but this is what we're saying that they're worth for four years with no raise that's not right and though there's a bunch of them out here and they're going to tell you what they're worth too they're worth more than that this should be the place they come to be proud of this should be the county that everybody comes to we are the biggest in the state we love our kids why are we here but you have your 15 people your 15 year people that are really considering and they are walking away and thursday will be the telltale sign when in service happens we will know how many were short and i think it's closer to 100. but there's a lot of them it's those 15-year people because they're not vested to be

051here like the 30-year people those other companies are paying more money no stress you want us to do assigned seats again this year we need paid for all that thank you thank you [Applause] miss lewis is coming forward um and next we'll have gabriella anderson hi hello my name is kathy lewis i live at 12 west 3rd street frost proof i'm a school bus driver for you guys i have been that for this is my 10th year coming up i love my job i love my kids but i hate the money i make i am a single mom in the last three years my rent has gone up every year 100 a month before long i will be homeless for me being here tonight trying to fight for my survival instead of being with my

052family right now because both of my elderly parents are in the hospital with kobit my dad is now on a ventilator but i have to be here fighting for my life and my children's lives to survive shame on you guys i am worth more than 13 40 an hour i bust my butt for you guys i do i don't mind covering i'll do anything i mask i am worth more than that shame on you i want my steps back i deserve them you offering me two percent raises spitting in my face and telling me i am not worth anything and i am this close to walking this close and the only thing that's keeping me here are my babies on my bus because i love them they are like my children i would protect them

053with my life so i am asking you i am begging you do something for all of us or you're going to lose us because we are so fed up and i know that you don't believe us because you've heard it year and year again but we're walking we're walking thank you thank you miss anderson hi my name is gabrielle anderson i live at 3501 jade lane mulberry florida 33860 i'm here today to discuss a gross injustice we're going to have a lot of interesting conversations today about freedoms and personal choice etc when we have a majority of some very core essential school board employees being paid less than living wages and recently offered an insultingly low raise of 28 cents to cover the last four years since uh their last their last wage increase my

054daughter is a polk public school student and i was a polk public school student and i think my daughter's safety is worth more than seven cents a year for the last four years that you're willing to pay these bus drivers representative hyde you're proud and excited to register three cars and a boat trailer while your bus drivers and your cafeteria workers are on government assistance that is disgusting my husband and i work jobs for a living we support ourselves and we have jobs that are that we're passionate about and that pay us enough to stay there and to save for our daughter's future but your workers have been facing a tremendous dilemma of choosing between a necessary job they care about or food on the table you're going to start this year with a hundred

055three bus drivers short and as a parent that terrifies me but completely expected honestly um you know when our own local government isn't doesn't decide that they want to uh provide competitive wages to our own federal government and i have faith and the professionalism and the safety focus of our bus drivers our food service workers and our other valued um you know education workers but i'm greatly concerned with their effectiveness when they're faced with grievous understaffing and i would urge each and every one of you on this board to deeply think about your own positions you are put there by the community to serve the students and the parents of polk county a job you cannot possibly hope to perform well if you leave behind these most essential and important workers i also just want

056to say too when you have cabinet members of your own board saying that the people talking about their own strife is what she considers i can't say profanity it's witching with a b someone is texting someone on this staff is texting people outside of this room and saying the people coming up here right now are b-wording about their complaints i'm absolutely livid as that as a parent absolutely livid because i'm sitting behind a woman right there who texted somebody that the public comments were quote unquote be wording about raises that is disgusting that should never be a thing and i am shamed that this board will allow that to happen but i want to thank you all so much for your time i want to thank the workers who are here tonight to stand up

057for themselves because they deserve it and they should be listened to have a great night thank you [Applause] board members now we need to approve three sets of minutes first set of minutes is for the june 8 school board meeting the chair will entertain a motion to accept the june 8th 2021 school board meeting minutes as printed do i have a motion and a second second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously the second set of minutes is for the june 8th 2021 work session the chair will entertain a motion to accept the june 8th 2021 work session minutes as printed do i have a motion and a second so moved

058second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay motion carries unanimously the third set of minutes is for the july 20th 2021 school board meeting the chair will entertain a motion to accept the july 20th 2021 school board meeting minutes as printed do i have a motion and a second second i have a motion and a second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay motion carries unanimously the next item is approval of today's consent agenda the chair will entertain a motion to accept the july 27 2021 consent agenda as printed do i have a motion and

059a second so second i have a motion and a second is there any discussion we i think there should be some decisions there was an item that was pulled by request just to make sure that that was accurate it was already pulled we did that before the meeting but thank you yes sir i think there were some items we were going to get some explanation for before we vote did you want those before the vote i think that would be mostly what's up do you we are prepared this week wright is in the room she could come to the microphone if not i'm prepared to speak to item g7 title one part c education for migratory children it's a continuation grant in in to the amount of 1.5 million dollars not seeing this right i'm

060prepared to provide the narrative so this is a federal grant as you know that comes from title 1 part c and it does extend from an earlier adoption of essa this specific grant addresses the needs of over 1600 migrant students and provides resources and services and supports to them directly through our ability to staff 18 full-time staff 70 covers 70 percent of the senior coordinator's salary and 25 percent of the program evaluator's salary it provides tutoring and intervention support services from everything from english language arts to mathematics it also assists us with ensuring timeliness in their graduation and accelerated learning options it also allows us to address out-of-school youth provide early childhood interventions intervention and recruitment identification and recruitment of students and families and parent and family engagement thank you mr hyde you're very welcome

061sir are there other items mr wilson i thought there were a few different ones i apologize i have the list here that's okay uh new elementary school was already we dressed previously as a non-non-issue under consent item for support services item number two the school resource officer agreements rob would you like to come forward and address that good evening uh this good evening these are contracts with eight different different agencies that we are putting in our high schools they they are 56 56 officers they're a combination of like i said from eight different agencies majority are coming from the polk county sheriff's department [Music] um it's a part of the fs or foreign statute 1006.12 for the protection and safety of school personnel property students and visitors of each school school board and school district

062superintendent shall partner with law enforcement agencies or security agencies to establish or assign one or more safe schools officers at each school facility within the district so that's what we're doing with the officers and we do the elementary and um and other other schools that are with our our school guardians it covers 56 total law enforcement positions thank you and just as a point of clarification i i ask that the items on the consent agenda be uh that we have some discussion simply for those items that were over a million dollars just uh in the interest of transparency so it doesn't need to be a lengthy explanation just something for the you know our general public to understand that what's happening with those dollars so thank you thank you thanks mr davis miss everett is

063she present this evening here she comes miss everett has item number seven under consent agenda for teaching and learning this is a purchase of achieve 3000 and smarty ants teaching and learning uh one point approximately 1.6 million dollars these are instructional interventions and supports for our students that focus on primary literacy through secondary literacy and i'll turn it over to you thank you good evening everybody this is the achieve bundle for our students achieve literacy provides the primary instructional materials for our secondary intensive reading courses and this year we're actually adding a piece to that called fastbridge it's a foundational piece specifically addressing secondary students that are struggling with foundational pieces and and gaps that they've experienced from elementary school it also includes the k-2 supplemental smarty ants program used by our students and then

064it also includes a boost light for our primary students in k through 2 that finish smarty ants conclude the program so that they can continue to grow above their grade level as well and it's all of those pieces packaged together thank you thank you yes sir madam chair members of the board the last item that i believe we had was item number 11 under that same section n consent agenda for teaching and learning this is in regards to the purchase of renaissance flow 360 and freckle math from renaissance teaching and learning for 1.9 million dr mcnaughton are you available if not ann you can come back up and speak so a big part of this as ann returns to the today us here um is our ongoing progress monitoring so as you know within an

065era in a state with high stakes accountability the our ability to monitor our students progress from the start of the school year continuously throughout the year and be able to provide intervention in real time based off need is ever more important and so this process star allows us to do that you're all familiar with star it is our primary progress monitoring tool and that's our best predictor of student outcomes the correlation between star outcomes and and florida assessment results is high and so whatever we see reported from our spring to winter and excuse me from our fall to winter in our winter to spring is a strong indication of where our students might perform and any growth and or a proficiency level attainment that they may reflect in our their final statewide assessments so go

066ahead do i leave anything left i will add that this also includes the accelerated reader component that i know most everybody understands or is familiar with the ar piece that that everybody knows and then it also includes instructional tools so that our teachers can help group students based on their needs and really begin to provide those interventions that are specific to those students that have those individual needs and so it kind of all packaged together as well it's another large package just for the sake of the community and those who are in the audience with us today who may not be familiar they are accelerated reader is the process we use within our media centers primarily in elementary school which are leveled text so we identify students at their current reading level and then by

067color code or by by a different symbol they can actually ensure that they continue to read and get exposed to various genre and other reading materials that are age and developmentally appropriate for them but then also increase with difficulty and challenge them over time and so many of our schools as you know have rewards and incentive programs around ar uh for example i know that uh floral elementary school will actually be giving away some prizes based off their summer literacy initiatives with their students because each time a student reads a book they take an assessment and then that captures and it basically counts towards points that those students can redeem so there's an incentive there for them to continue to read and strive to read more difficult content but more importantly for us that we

068ensure that when they do read something that they're developing stronger reading comprehension skills and strategies along the way so it's a very balanced program ar has been used my goodness for probably 20 years in the public yeah it's been around since the 80s it was actually developed by a parent and she had her own children and she wanted them to read but she also wanted to make sure that they were understanding what they read so she actually started it in her garage in the 80s and she was quizzing her her children as they read read books and then it kind of grew to what it is today and really the goal of ar is to really develop that love of reading right and make sure that kids are enjoying that thank you across the board

069thank you i believe those were all the items that exceeded a million dollars yes thank you mr thank you madam chair thank you so much mr wilson and superintendent hyde so we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda any further discussion board members seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously the next item on our agenda tonight is the new administrator announcements superintendent hyde would you please introduce our new administrators this man madam chair members of the board and community and staff it's my pleasure this evening introduce our new administrators who have recently been appointed they are joined by their families we did provide you with biographies on each so you have

070where they're coming from where they're going to um and a little bit more detail about them so first cheryl hill principal at caldwell elementary school has been promoted to director of recruitment and certification and compliance next is tony kirk acting senior director of human resource services he's been promoted to director of human resources services i'll do them in small groups next is michael craig manager of purchasing services who has been promoted to director of purchasing and print services jason geary acting director of communications will now be promoted to director of communications and kevin robertson acting principal at gauss academy is now promoted to principal of gauss academy and i had the pleasure and luxury of visiting his school recently so as you heard when we first started and we'll do them again in groups so

071please if you'll join me in giving them a round of applause and congratulating them it is important that we recognize family and i had the opportunity this evening as you know to to celebrate my appointment this evening with my family but you know our dedication to public service and education is truly a reflective of servant leadership we give of ourselves tirelessly and with a level of dedication that's unsurpassed by many others and behind us are our family and our friends and our loved ones and more often than not we they lose time with us because we invest so heavily in others and so i did take the opportunity to say thank you to them because without them and their support your loved ones would not be able to strive for excellence the way they do

072so thank you very much for supporting them and thank you and congratulations to our new appointees okay i think we should probably file you out so we can bring in the next group coming in heather palmer school-based coach at spook hill elementary school has been promoted to assistant principal at spook hill elementary school awesome martay wilson assistant principal two at denison middle school has been promoted to assistant principal at mclaughlin middle school leslie clay assistant principal 2 at stambaugh high school or middle school excuse me has been permitted to assistant principal at stambaugh middle sherry onorati teacher testing coordinator at daniel jenkins academy of technology has been promoted to assistant principal of inwood elementary school chandra johnson assistant principal 2 at bartow middle has been promoted to assistant principal of jewett school of the arts

073so if you will again join me in congratulating all of yours and again a sincere thank you to their family and loved ones for being here the same evening and continue to support them in their mission of excellence thank you next we have kayla pagan cartagena school-based coach at horizons elementary school who's been promoted to assistant principal of griffin elementary after her we have toiletta speed acting assistant principal at gauss academy has now been promoted to assistant principal at gauss academy sean livingston assistant principal of real academy has been promoted to principal of paget element excuse me oh that was big promotion promoted to assistant principal at pageant elementary casey willis school-based coach at spessard holland elementary school has been promoted to assistant principal at lincoln academy carrie foster curriculum specialist for math was promoted

074to senior director of k-12 mathematics and that concludes all of our acknowledgements so please join me one more time give them a round of applause and congratulations again to their family and loved ones who are here with them this evening without you they would not be here thank you does that conclude that concludes those acknowledgments i apologize thank you superintendent hyde board members next we come to our action agenda and the first item today is the mental health allocation and plan the chair will entertain a motion to approve the mental health plan for the 2021-22 school year do i have a motion and a second so moved second is there any discussion we have dr lutz in the room i know we had a lengthy discussion today yes miss fortney i just want to interject

075uh to please watch the work session about the ratios of our social workers school counselors mental health professionals they are unacceptable and when people get all riled up about an issue i wish they get route up about things that really do hinder kids from learning and living a valuable life that's it thank you miss fortney is there any further discussion board members saying none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay motion carries unanimously the next item we have tonight is the revision of the senior director legislative liaison government affairs and policy job description the chair will entertain a motion to approve the revision to the senior director legislative liaison government affairs and policy job description do i have a motion and

076a second second is there any discussion ms fields thank you we had discussion during the work session and this item was on the consent agenda and i actually moved to the action agenda and i wanted to preface it with the comment that i made earlier today i am very appreciative of the hard work that uh wendy dodge does as our as our director of the legislative liaison governmental affairs and policy job position i think that she does a great job however there are others that are in waiting uh to have the same opportunity and as i said uh this morning or early afternoon rather that if it was a collective recommendation where others that are also in a place where they need to have consideration as as as a upgrade or a promotion from a

077director to a senior director i would be more than happy to consider this but because it's coming i guess in one stage at a time i cannot support it i have heard from others that they feel like they are in need of the same consideration and i know that mr hyde is going to be doing some of that and i know that staff morel is at a all-time low we heard from some of our staff just a few minutes ago about the need for us to consider to equity and making sure that everybody gets the same equal footing as it relates to salaries so because of that and again nothing against the person is in the position i cannot support this recommendation thank you okay any further discussion seeing none i'd like to go ahead

078and call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay nay the motion carries six to one now it is time for our public hearing i would like to recess the school board meeting and open up the public hearing at this time i would like to call the public hearing for july 27 2021 to order our first item to consider tonight is this 2021 2022 student code of conduct is there anyone in the audience that would like to come forward to address this one item if so please come forward state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address the board madam chair if i may yes your board um just for clarification that board policy will also contain a revision

079based off the consensus vote from earlier today it will remove any reference to board policy as it relates to face masks okay sir thank you very much for that update anyone want to come forward okay seeing no one the chair will entertain a motion is this regarding the student code of conduct yes okay yes please state your name brenda stokes i live at 1111 surrey street in haines city florida the other thing this afternoon it said i know you withdrew the thing about the mask in the school board policy but then you left it in this student code of conduct i want a clarification on that that's only for students that wear the mask that they choose to wear the mask correct and that if they don't wear it properly then they'll be in trouble

080is that what it's saying no no ma'am that's an assumption so okay i want to know who's going to win this will be redirected if they wear the mask inappropriately that's part of the policy is just like proper attire being worn appropriately we would address that with the family what we anticipate may happen is that students may arrive on campus they've been instructed to wear a mask they look around others or not and so they will may remove the mask they may not wear properly the whole point is if they're choosing to wear it they must wear it appropriately and so the conversation is going to be had with their family so they can make an informed decision for the subsequent day there is no discipline consequence for that however there will be potentially a

081disciplinary consequence should a student wear a mask that's completely inappropriate for example if it violated our pseudocode of conduct and that's why we were insistent on keeping it there i understand thank you thank you thank you very much okay chair will entertain a motion to approve the 2021 2022 student code of conduct do i have a motion and a second madam chair i make that motion as revised because there will be a revision to it correct thank you i have a motion in a second is there any further discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously our next item is the 2021 2022 tentative budget and millage rates is there anyone in the audience that

082would like to come forward to address this item if so please your state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address the board seeing none we shall proceed and this is we have a bunch of motions so bear with me the first one is the chair will entertain a motion to approve the required local effort of 3.581 mills do i have a motion and a second so moved second having a motion in a second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay motion carries unanimously the chair will now entertain a motion to approve the discretionary operating millage of 0.748 mills do i have a motion in a second second

083is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay motion carries unanimously the chair will now entertain a motion to approve the local capital improvement capital outlay millage of 1.5 mills do i have a motion in a second so moved second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously next the chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 2021-2022-01 formally adopting the millage rates for the 2021 2022 school year do i have a motion and a second second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please

084signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously the chair will entertain a motion to approve resolution 2021-2022-02 formally adopting the 2021-2022 tentative budget do i have a motion and a second so moved second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously the chair will entertain a motion to approve the tentative budget for the fiscal year 2021-2022 in the amount of 2 billion 201 million 878 755 dollars do i have a motion and a second so moved is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously and

085lastly the chair will entertain a motion to submit to the property appraiser form dr-420 certificate of taxable value which reflects the previously approved tentative millage rates and sets the final budget hearing for tuesday september 7 2021 no earlier than 5.01 pm here at the jim miles professional development center 4270 wallace road lakeland florida three three eight one two do i have a motion and a second so second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed name the motion carries unanimously the third item uh before us this evening is our policy updates is there anyone in the audience tonight that would like to come forward to address this item seeing none we shall proceed and i just for

086clarification mr bridges can i go ahead and do them all in one or do i need to do each item separately normally i do them all unless there is an item that board members wish to discuss separately you may do them all together okay so the chair will entertain a motion to approve the updates to the following policies and board members if you want to pull one let me know as i read them 7250 naming of school facilities commemoration and memorials 7250.01 deleting the policy now of naming of school facilities bylaws 165 meetings bylaws 165.1 agendas bylaws 166 executive bylaw 165.1 work session and 8315 information management do i have a motion and a second so second is there any discussion on those policy updates seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all

087those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay the motion carries unanimously and at this time i would like to close the public hearing and reconvene the school board meeting the next item tonight is our superintendent's report superintendent hi do you have an update for us today i do madam chair members of the board um this is not something to get used to because i'm not used to not providing more comprehensive superintendent reports but the next work session and board meeting will be held on august 24 2021 the board work session will begin at 12 30 p.m and the board meeting will begin at 5 pm they will be held at the or the meeting will be held at the jim miles professional development center located at 5204 u.s highway 98

088south in lakeland the next superintendent's report will focus primarily on strategic planning and also some other comprehensive updates thank you sir next we'll have our attorney's report which will be given by mr west bridges thank you madam chair i have a bit of an unusual item this evening for you and i can give you as much detail as you would like but in a nutshell you'll recall about a year ago you you you executed a partial termination of ground lease agreements and it had to do with a parcel of land just to the east of george jenkins high school which is being developed for residential use as we speak and this is property that was formerly owned by the school by the school district i believe he sold it about the turn of the century

089but it was it had been the subject of a certificate of participation of transaction back in the early 90s so this goes back about 30 years altogether and when that property was sold apparently the title were conducted by the company that was doing that did not catch some of the ground leases that were created as part of that cops transaction and they asked us to terminate those ground leases so we brought that that transaction to you after after some after some grief trying to figure it all out and review by our bond council we brought that to you and took care of it uh was recently uh contacted by the developer once once again and apparently there was a similar situation with a couple of other lots that they had just discovered and they asked

090that the board do that it is it involves no financial impact to the school board at all it is simply to clear the title remove that cloud on the title for the developer uh who is who is the successor owner of that property so i have brought that to you tonight with a request that you approve the partial termination of ground lease agreements thank you mr bridges so the chair will entertain a motion to execute the proposed partial termination of ground lease agreements for the real property located to the east of george jenkins high school do i have a motion and a second so moved second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay motion carries

091unanimously thank you madam chair that's all i have for you this evening thank you sir next item on our agenda is our auditor's report and i believe we have a report this evening which will be given by our internal auditor miss carol matthews so this evening i've brought the internal audit plan for your approval the internal audit charter requires school board approval of an annual audit plan and the plan was created from a comprehensive risk assessment of the school district and covers as many higher risk areas as possible given our available resources audit plans must be flexible to account for unanticipated demands such as unscheduled audits and investigations and any significant deviation from the approved audit plan will be communicated to the school board through periodic activity reports the audit plan was previously emailed to

092you for your review so this evening i'm requesting your approval of the 21 2021 2022 internal audit plan thank you the chair will entertain a motion to approve the 2021 2022 audit plan for internal audit services do i have a motion and a second so move second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed nay motion carries unanimously thank you so much miss matthews and now we will have our board members reports and we will begin with dr alan thank you madam chair uh superintendent hi thanks for engaging the families of our new administrators it was a nice look i really appreciate that and that support unit that's around our new administrators the other thing that if

093for those in the audience if you've noticed as well we've got the full cabinet out here and i really appreciate that that's um it's good to have you all out there um and i'm not sure who organized the agenda by category i just wanted to give a big thanks for that and i think for the general public that's following our agenda if you notice in board docs it's all organized by uh cabinet position now so as our community engages with our content i think that's that's done very well compassion is one of those words that you can't uh draw like if i say ball you could draw a ball but when i say compassion you can't necessarily draw it um but you can maybe draw somebody that demonstrates it or there's some reflection on that

094so a couple of things i want to draw attention to tonight really demonstrates the idea of compassion first of all ms jenna and our school nutrition team did an amazing job this summer feeding our students throughout the community if you know anything about that that was happening on mondays and thursdays and we were pretty much distributing meals for the whole week ms jenna organized some really incredible instructional materials that then train managers at each location we had drivers that would drop at a particular time because everything was temperature sensitive and then we had to turn around on serving i just and i had a chance to take part in that and it just the time logistics the coordination uh quite amazing uh and i don't even know what the numbers were were but i'm sure

095mr davis would know that and just want to just give a shout out for that element of compassion that was extended to our community in great ways another example of compassion that i noticed just recently coach adrian and the george jenkins high wind dancers they initiated a community service project called compassion project and they were collecting items um all summer and then they came and gave their contributions to lighthouse ministries to their thrift store i just wanted to give a thanks to the ceo steve thurbyville and the board chair ashley troutman for just uh integrating and sharing the great work that lighthouse ministries does within our community um and so we've got those demonstrations of compassion and then i wanted to um give a shout out to pamela rodriguez and if you're tracking on the

096school board page um we shared the story pamela rodriguez went to north lakeland elementary graduated from harrison school of arts and then went on to florida southern college and a little film that she wrote was just picked up by hbo max i had a chance to serve as a producer and a unit production manager on that project it was a very big faculty collaborative project but the story is set in one of our classrooms specifically north lakeland elementary school and for her as latina was really struggling with simulating in her classroom and it was her teacher who was from india who came alongside her and allowed her to value her culture and just a really beautiful story so if you want to watch it's on hbo max if you search by eat the name of

097the film is comey so a great little project that demonstrates some elements of compassion that happen right in our classroom and will now have a larger impact in the film world so pretty cool recognition for harrison school of the arts and then florida southern college she's one of my students as well so um as an update the lakeland aero club if you've been tracking what we've been doing at the central florida aerospace academy in connection with kathleen high some incredible work being done there but they're pretty close to arriving uh with several super cubs to oshkosh wisconsin uh to the air venture 2021 air show so this cross country flight it's been happening since 2015 and it's my understanding that the gas tanks and these little super cubs actually only allow them to do about

098an hour and a half hop so they leave from lakeland and they go up to oshkosh wisconsin and then they fly back and then they take part in the air show a pretty amazing event that they get to take part in and i just wanted to give you know a little shout out i know a couple students that are on that journey and happy flying to our polk county students and then lastly just want to give a little recognition to ms k fields who is probably right in the middle of organizing a pretty major event this coming weekend and should maybe speak more to it but it's on july 31st and august 1st celebrating 50 years girls inc within lakeland serving our community so thank you for doing that that's all i have mountain chair

099thank you dr alan next uh miss sarah fortney thank you miss cunningham uh first i want to wish everybody who's retiring happy retirement we take all volunteers when you get bored which i know you will to come back and uh and hang out at your schools and uh help our staff uh make a difference uh you know the uh speakers this evening i i want to thank you for standing up and speaking out about wages it is always on my mind how we can say that we love you and then excuse me we don't pay you and uh i will do everything in my power to make sure and if there was somebody being disrespected out there i would like to talk with that person moving on to something a little more positive uh at

100purcell saturday from 11 to one we have a partnership with the city of mulberry uh babcock corporation and the mulberry minis ministerial alliance i can get it right uh the students have to be present and have a mulberry school id they're uh giving out backpacks etc uh feel free if you're in the mulberry school system to stop by um i want to give a huge shout out to our warehouse right here in bartow bobby williams some of you all know him of the freedom tour danny higgins our ultra ultra mega person in mulberry called me and asked me if if i still had my little trailer and i said i do i need you to go to eagle ridge mall and i need you to pick up some water and i said okay so i

101hook up the trailer and i go and i get there bobby greets me bobby's former student of mine and he goes uh is that what you drove and i said yes sir and he said this is what you have to take it was five pallets five pallets three pallets of water and i mean pallets and two pallets of nothing but snacks so i called a warehouse right there in the parking lot of eagle ridge mall and eli came to the rescue it was picked up and brought thank you miss usher and our warehouse staff and then uh two mulberry teachers and i in a trailer and a big truck went and picked it up the next day and distributed it at the migrant camp you should the it was the farm workers and that's what

102it takes it takes that teamwork and uh and we have it i just like to reward it a little more so to uh kelly and her husband mulberry middle mobile high thank you and then speaking of staff uh you know i'm sure you all driving around uh mr allen mentioned uh you know feeding all the kids yes what we did all summer we fed kids and they worked in you know tandem uh some people have yet to even take a vacation uh or or even can afford to take a vacation let alone take one but just maybe get some time to themselves but you drive by these schools and they are always busy if you find a school that doesn't have a car in it i want you to text me because i want to

103go look myself because our people do care that's why pre-k 312 public schools just do it better right there [Applause] that's it thank you miss fortney miss reynolds thank you madam chair um i had the opportunity last week to attend know and grow which is a polk vision program that was run at lake ship and they've done several schools so far they've i think they've reached inwood they've done twice at inwood twice at crystal lake um and then just completed lake ship and they'll be doing another one at lake ship but this program goes in and teaches parents how to use some of our technology the number of parents that can't that don't know how to access our parent portal to be able to check and see what their students grades are what their attendance

104is is staggering and they realizing that this was an issue as we were moving on to some of our digital learning platforms they not only targeted okay we need to teach the parents but one of their barriers is child care so what are we going to do with the kids while we're teaching the parents how to use technology so they now have a healthy eating program for the students while their parents are learning how to use technology it is the coolest program that makes you feel good there was um a grandmother and granddaughter pair that came and they would get there 30 minutes early every night just to make sure they got the best seat in the house mind you there's like 40 people in the cafeteria so there's plenty of seats but they were

105just so genuinely excited to be able to to do something together and they're looking for other schools to pilot at so and throughout polk county so be looking for it to come to a school near you it's a lot of fun for both the parents and the students next i had the opportunity in june to help with youth leadership polk which youth leadership polk is basically a mini version of the adult leadership polk and it takes students they do it in a compacted one week program so they do everything from touring coffee shops to touring lego land learning all about the different businesses and industries in polk county and what they have to offer and then at the end of the week they get paired with a mentee so this is my mentee her name

106is katie lila i asked her to come out so i could introduce her she is a rising junior at harrison school for the arts she is a dance major and she is looking to after high school go to study she's thinking somewhere maybe in china um but studying international business and chinese as her majors with a minor in social media management so she's hanging out with our tech team tonight she was here all day with us to learn about what school boards do um and hasn't run away yet so that's really the most impressive part and she didn't fall asleep um so she's spending this evening with our tech team kind of seeing what the tech side looks and um i think they've already recruited her to help with some some things on their side

107so if you have a chance afterwards say hello to my friend katie so thank you um [Applause] and then i just want to say again thank you to the hyde family um because while it's great to have you here moving here as a 14 year old kid that doesn't know anybody i think freddy really gets the most credit for for moving down um so just thank you for supporting you it's the family has it just as tough so thank you for all that you do but also for your to your family for letting us have you as as much as we do um and then i'd like to welcome yvette who is going to be our new school board assist executive assistant effective monday um and then lastly and this is the most exciting announcement

108mr hyde what are you doing on november 4th i will be ill mr hyde that was the good answer i i will be i will be participating in the lip sync competition superintendent hi i am still struggling with identifying two songs but i will and i gave miss reynolds incredible credit they're very smart they published my participation almost immediately after i said yes there's no possibility of withdrawing at this point yes so superintendent hyde will be participating in the winterhaven celebrity lip sync battle which is the winter haven public education partnerships big fundraiser for the year so tickets are on sale now if you want to see him lip sync you can get it at celebritylipsyncbattle.com so just a little shameless plug sorry very good question the event will be at the chain of lakes

109complex which is the old cleveland indian stadium in winterhaven the address is 588 cletus allen boulevard winterhaven florida 33880 and it will start at 6 pm there'll be food trucks it's a lot of fun we have five other contestants too but obviously you want to see superintendent high due to lip sync songs he's also taking recommendations for songs because he still doesn't have those oh i have some ideas yeah okay and he's taking backup dancers too so if you want to be a backup dancer talk to him mr wilson mr wilson you're sick that night okay everybody that concludes my report thank you miss reynolds miss field thank you i just have a couple of items i wanted to welcome mr hyde and his family to the polk county school district and also i wanted

110to welcome miss yvette in her position as executive assistant to the school board i also wanted to congratulate all of the the men and women that came before us today for their new positions and their families as mr hyde said for making the sacrifice that they make each and every day to ensure that our students get the best care and education possible so i want to congratulate them as well i also want to thank mr joe tedder who has really been an amazing partner in his team his staff and also southern homes for the number of years that they have actually made sure that additional dollars have gone into our arts program and it's amazing that he started here in polk county and now it's throughout the state so hats off to him again and

111his team and then i wanted to thank the united way of central florida i want to thank dr allen for recognizing girls inc for having 50 years of service in our community inspiring all girls to be strong smart and bold and i want to thank the coordinators who came before us today within the school district for working hard to raise the dollars for united way and i think that everyone realizes for the last year and a half it's been very difficult because of the pandemic and i can't say enough how thankful girl zinc and other partners are to have united well central florida stepping up and helping us at a time we really needed to have that extra effort and extra push financially and again uh thanking the school district and all the people that

112were recognized today but every employee that has given to united way making a sacrifice each and every day to make our community better and then the last thing well actually i have one two more things i want to thank mr hill for doing a very uh detailed covett report today and thank you and your team for making sure that we have a a roadmap that we can follow this school year with some adjustments and some some alignments and then last but certainly not least ms cunningham had referenced damien moses death at the beginning of the meeting and i've been in contact with some of the family members and it's my understanding they will be establishing a scholarship fund in support of his two children that are in college and they're going to be announcing it

113hopefully within the next week so if you want to figure out how you can be supportive of him in his work and he was an amazing young man only 50 years of age i believe so he leaves behind a wife and two children be looking out for that and you can support him and his family through that effort and that is the end of my report thank you thank you miss fields [Applause] and next mr wilson thank you madam chair and just to be clear before mrs reynolds puts my name on any program i'm out i'm out of the lyft scene contest 2022 we're coming for you yeah yeah i guess it gives me time to prepare um i have no report thank you madam chair all right thank you mr wilson miss miller i

114have really quick items i feel like we we take way too much time when we have the public here but um two things one the kiwanis of lakeland we're stuffing the bus so if you see the big boxes whether it's in bad or lakeland electric or around the city make sure you drop off items for our students and if you'd like to join us at 7 a.m sarah beth right outside of the radio station right there with our at rp funding center or what was rp funding center it still is okay 7 am august 4th you can help us unload all the boxes and actually get the supplies to the elementary schools here in lakeland so it's important that we help out where we can to stuff the bus is a big kiwanis event i

115just want to quickly mention damian moses i'll tell you my experience with him i came in really late to the whole polk county district lake wells district whatever that was and moses and i saw things a lot eye to eye i would take students and families who another charter school i won't name may not be able to serve and i would take them to bach academy and he would tour us and show them what they were doing he was very open to the community and what was happening there he believed in kids he didn't get caught up in all of the politics and bureaucracy that this job really can have because he was there for children and i appreciate what he's done and the legacy he leaves behind it breaks my heart he is a

116very young man at 50 and so there will be a celebration of life at the high school in the gymnasium this saturday so if you go to their website or their facebook page i think you can find information you can join it will be live streamed for those who who can't attend but would like to be a part of that service thank you thank you miss miller and thank you for the update on mr moses i appreciate that okay so i have a short report so i'll go be very quick superintendent hyde we welcome you and your family to polk county we're very excited for what we're seeing as your remarkable leadership your exceptional communication skills and the vast knowledge and experience that you bring we look forward all of us to working with you

117to take our school district to the next level and once again we welcome your beautiful wife patty your son freddie and your mom miss chester we're glad that they could be here tonight to celebrate with you thank you i too want to say a couple thank yous first of all we had a vacancy in the board office for our executive assistant and our executive secretary ms linda baldick was gracious enough and you can put your hand up and wave she was gracious enough to step into those shoes and be there for me as chair to help me along the way when we didn't have anybody in the office so miss linda i thank you you took the time and the energy and always made sure everything that i may have asked or needed or communication

118to the board and you're always there for me and i just want to say thank you so much it really means the world to me that you were so kind and gracious and linda and linda will then return as our executive secretary and we have now filled the executive board assistant um with missy vega if you'll raise your hand miss vega and works yes we're excited to have you on board tonight the board formally voted to have you join our wonderful team and as i've told the ladies here because yvette has been in the superintendent's office so she's moving from there to the board office and as i've always said we are a team and we work together and we understand that there'll be some transition time but we're willing to work together to make

119that work positively so we look forward to welcoming you officially on monday august the 2nd and the good news is that they were able the the superintendent's office was able to uh fill her position and that's why she's able to come on board so quickly so we're very excited for that we wish you the best we welcome you as part of this crazy team um and we're seven different personalities but we have one thing in common and that's what is best for our kids so you'll find that about all of us and last but not least as i mentioned we are a family we are seven different board members coming from seven different backgrounds and educational experiences and when one of us celebrates we all celebrate and we have one of us amongst us ms

120sarah beth reynolds who recently got engaged and i would like to say congratulations to you and derek on behalf of your board family we're very happy for you and excited i don't think i know the wedding date so you might have to help me out october 23rd yes so will you join me in congratulating ms reynolds on her recent engagement [Applause] and that concludes my report yay so the next item on our agenda is public comments addressing items not specifically on the agenda tonight and i do have a group of individuals that have signed up to speak so if you'd be so kind and come forward as i call your name the first person is and i'm not going to say this right is it chris christie is it christy mccullough did i say it

121right okay dear and after christy will have stephen elias christie mckellar winterhaven florida florida 19-year veteran teacher i'm speaking about something that everyone tells me i don't need to speak about but i'm gonna do it anyway okay so in may i started being concerned when mass were waived and parents that were concerned about their kids health started talking we experienced e-learning last year at that time the district said no e-learning so i didn't worry about coming but we see what the numbers are going we hear the parents that are concerned about their kids health so again i'm told again that by several people that i trust and totally believe there's no e-learning and the state's not doing it and so forth but in my experience with both the district of the state when enough people

122complain things change so i'm just concerned last year we initially i sat on a task force we said we would not do e-learning would not parents complained they wanted their kids safe but they wanted their kids in their magnet school or their special program so we did e-learning but we would not do hybrid not and then we would only do it on very special cases but when you have most of the elementary schools in the county that are hybrid that's a special case algebra one not a special case so you know right now we're at the point again with the numbers going up the state is not approved e-learning probably not going to have it but we don't know what the future is going to hold so as you go with this the problem with

123e-learning is it's really impossible to create a schedule that allows true e-learning teachers dedicated e-learning we gave two extra weeks last year can be done especially middle and secondary and even elementary schools have special academies and programs and unique things so i'm not saying this because the extra work i'm saying this because it just didn't work our kids in front of us were shortchanged they did not get our attention we could not go to help them because we were tied to the computer so we're stuck with that and if we think the technology answer i was talking to a person that teaches a very expensive private school in orlando it cost forty thousand dollars a year to send your kids to school parents invested in this and she was talking about how in biology her

124kids were behind the next year they were not going to be able to pass the ap exam they were so behind and we're talking and i find out that she has a large tv screen on her back wall that all of her zoom kids are projected on so she can stand in front see every kid she's got a microphone and a camera that follow her that follow her around every motion so she can teach like normal every student in the room had a computer on their desk so they can do exactly the same assignment that her kids did and she didn't get as much done she wasn't ready for the next year and so we can't do that and so just a note we've got to do something for the quarantine kids it's going to

125happen but please please don't bring back elearning e-learning thank you dear [Applause] stephen elias and then john ruffin good evening good evening i have some handouts is it okay if i pass them out sure or if you just give them to linda right there she can pass it to the board save a little bit of time okay so good evening my name is steve elias i'm here tonight following up on i got received notifications in june about vaccine pop-up clinics in our county and i sent you all individual emails regarding my concerns for safety for vaccinating our kids so since then i've learned that although our county is receiving large amounts of money to implement the vaccination to our children there's little to no safety data or collection that's going on to review adverse impacts

126to our kids with no little to no discussion on whether with the parents whether or not we should be doing this for our kids as a parent i shouldn't have to dig this hard to find this data but i'm going to rattle off some quickies for you this f this vaccine has only got emergency use authorization with the assumption that there were no available treatments so we're essentially all participating in a big experiment okay we all realize that by design according to the vaccine makers this will not protect you from contracting or con or or transmitting coven to other people this vaccine so just know that coincidentally disturbingly the countries in the world right now that are most highly vaccinated are leading the world right now in new covent outbreak cases the trials well first

127of all uh john hopkins notes that of the 335 kids around the country that have died from covid which is about seven per state by the way all of them had serious underlying conditions like leukemia so i i would be real interested in polk county if the number is greater than zero how many kids in our county have died from covid and i'd like to know that number vaccine trials typically if more than 50 people die from a coveted vaccination they shut the program down when i sent the email to you all about a month ago it was 4 500 deaths 4 500. now it's over 11 000. if in case you're not worse yet in case you're not aware of it last week a federal government whistleblower has come forward with a sworn affidavit

128saying she's got data showing that the federal government is keeping from the public 450 000 deaths within three days of getting their vaccine shot 400 i don't know that's multiple times tampa bay stadium there so that's a big number some quotes from some subject matter experts on 37 seconds we need another meeting on this because so bottom line is we rely on you all to protect our kids i implore a discussion on this topic before we continue rolling this vaccine and supporting it as a school board we rely on you just like the sheriff's office back here to protect us we need to make local decisions on the safety of this vaccine we need to have a conversation about this i just greatly implore you to do this i'd love to rattle off some of

129these quotes please read that and please follow up with me i would love to have a follow-up discussion thank you sir [Applause] good evening august board members my name is john ruffin i'm the president of the concerned citizens of polk county incorporated and the president of the concerned citizens of florida incorporated it is great it is with great pleasure that i come here tonight uh to to actually welcome uh our esteemed leader new leader at the helm of the school district and his family uh mr hyde and we're so pleased that he's here been on the job on barely a month and has been asked to tender his resignation and and uh has had one problem after another but but i'm so thankful that many of the board members really supported him and advocated him

130during his his little scenario but we are so pleased to have mr hyde here mr hyde has been portrayed and depicted as a visionary leader and i believe that i had an opportunity to dialogue with him and he shared with us a very comprehensive plan for the district and so we know that he's going to do great things and we need to support him historically there have been a faction of people whose job description has been to create havoc for superintendent uh positions uh part of the reason i believe that uh his predecessor left was because of some of the the flank that she was getting and some of the and that's what precipitated her tendering her resignation on on on a premature basis but we want to keep mr hyde he has demonstrated in

131the short time that he's been here that he has the competencies the skill set and the credentials to take this district to a new level uh he's an engineer of of this district train i already have my ticket so what i'm encouraging you all to do is to get your ticket naysayers as well get you a ticket and get on board you're welcome to join and get on this train all is welcome because we don't know where we're going but we know that he's going to take us to heights that to places that we will just that we would just love so he's going to do a great job so let's support him let's not criticize him let's support him and it would be robbery of me not to acknowledge quickly mrs fields i would

132like to pay homage to her because she's done a great job most people really don't know what her job entails she's done a great job over at girls inc she's been a tour de force over there how she empowers those girls over there is unbelievable she's taken girls with behavior problems and and modified their behavior and turned them around incredible job miss phil's i i i i admire the job that you've done let's support our superintendent let's support our superintendent thank you thank you mr ruffin next we have reverend howard a mathis and after him dr h.b holmes good evening good evening and the new superintendent mr hyde i came out to also just welcome mr hyde i was in a forum with them on last a week a few days ago i don't know

133how long ago it's been but anyway mr hyde you said some things that i can really appreciate that you're going to be a superintendent for all of the children here in polk county you recognized deficiencies when it come down to diverse issues here in the school system that lets me know that you on the case and you said that you had to submit a document to the state in regards to equity and diversity tuesday see that lets you know i was listening to you however there is another document federal that i probably uh be emailing you about that i think we need to do some things because what you indicated from what you're saying the numbers were we're kind of out of compliance with the unitary status and that 20-year-old settlement decree so again we

134welcome you to polk county and we look forward to working with you and this wonderful school board that we have here god bless you all thank you sir thank you is dr holmes here he had to leave thank you sir um next we'll have terry connie coney is terry here and then maureen miller uh good evening uh school board uh superintendent hyde i'm terry coney uh 422 el salvador drive lakeland florida i'm the president of the naacp lakeland branch and i'm also a member of the uh boundary board committee for the school board plus a number of the hats that i wear but i'm just coming today to uh i've already welcomed superintendent high we're about to go into a new school year so i just want to uh thank you all for the tough

135job that you have and uh and with that uh as a community we need to support you just like you all need to uh be be cheerleaders we all need to be cheerleaders for polk county public schools and just listening to the support staff that came up here earlier uh they're definitely needed just like our teacher so y'all are in charge or have oversight of a a big train or like a roller coaster at disney world but in order for all those wheels to turn they all need all so you know it's up to you to figure out how to make sure the support staff is taken care of because if they're not happy then our kids don't get where they need to be no in a week or so we don't want to see

136kids on the side of the road with no buses picking them up plus we also want to see teachers in the classroom you know i saw a very unfortunate statement in the paper a week or so ago about a young lady she was a salutatorian at turner rock high school and she she stated that most of the school year she never had a permanent math teacher now we want our school system to be a quality school system but if we don't have teachers in the classrooms we don't have support staff taking care of the things that need to then we're not going to have that my organization we support education we truly do any function that we put on is in support of education you know i was raised by educators i have a sister

137that taught for 39 years i have the education chair for my education committee and several other members of our education committee and they're working right now to put together a solid plan to help the community show them the importance of of education and educating the kids and that doesn't just mean the kids it also means the parents because the parents have to be aware of the things they need to do especially starting from k going through 12 because those years go by fast so just want to let you know you have our support we've always been pro-education and we will continue to be pro-education regardless of what some may think thank you very much thank you very much miss miller and then jill dorsett hi maureen miller i live in solovita so right on the

138border i'm here i speak as the daughter of one of the first professors of educational administration in the country so i have i don't come from a non-knowledgeable background on this just want to express a welcome superintendent but you many of us are disappointed in your immediate participation in the critical race theory forum a theory that is divisive at best and frankly the non-response responses we've been getting from school board members that we have emailed basically telling us you appeared simply to say that it's not being taught at polk county we don't really know what was being said um presumably every time there's a forum on something that polk county is not teaching you won't be appearing i will just say and then we were being told about cultural responsive teaching lovely i will just

139say again my father started the native american education program back in the 70s uh so it's lovely but it's not really the newest thing school districts have been doing this for years and years just not with the pretty terms i mean i think it's great and let's keep it up i can remember as a student of 70s vietnamese students new to the country being given special attention from the school districts shamefully some of us would teach them four letter words but again welcome superintendent hyde we just hope that that you know going forward maybe i think your participation was well intentioned but a little bit of a mistake but we support you all i know you have a tough job thank you for your attention and we're watching thank you jill dorsett [Applause] jill dorsett

140and after her reverend eddie lake good evening everyone i'm jill dorsett address 122 east main street suite 262 lakeland florida 33801 and as our president said of the naacp mr terry coney i am the education chair for the lakeland branch naacp i am a former elementary middle and high school principal in districts in florida as well as in georgia and i was a history major at the university of florida so i know a little bit of something about history i taught history at lawton child's middle academy i was on the inaugural staff there and i also taught history at kathleen junior high school before becoming an inaugural staff member at kathleen junior high school so i was one of those teachers when the state of florida passed a 1994 legislative mandate statute 1003.42 that was

141back in 1994 and i can only imagine how far we would be if all of the teachers had taught the class as it should have been back then it was a very time consuming process of my own time taking that textbook doing my own research because i didn't learn african-american history when i was in high school and furthermore it's not something that should wait until college to be taught this is so serious that our history we're all americans yet the textbooks are not inclusive of the good the bad and the ugly of america's history history is history no matter what happened and it must be taught so that all children feel valued and a part of our society so that's the whole part of it is not to preach hate and racism but it is

142certainly not to ignore any part of america's history that was not pleasant really important so for those of you who are disappointed with our superintendent for participating in the panel last thursday i would advise you or encourage you rather to watch the forum it is online you can go to the naacp's facebook page and watch it he was there like most of us to learn what is it what it is not and what is all of the hoopla whatever the term we use the fuss is all about and so he learned a lot we learned together and if we're going to change the spirit of education then we need to all of us we need to be engaged in that conversation and learn about what it is okay and courageous conversations simply courageous conversations don't

143be afraid thank you thank you reverend lake and then dawn brown good evening board members good good day to each and every one of you eddie lake senior pastor new bethel amy church here in the beautiful city of lakeland i also serve as the president of the interdenominational minister alliance incorporated and i'm here today just to welcome mr hein thank you for your service i also served on the search committee and it was a unique pleasure i want to say to all of the board members i appreciate all of you and all the work you do because what you do is not easy at all and i pray for you and i want to say definitely to mrs fields god bless you 50 years celebration of your service and ministry to the community it's absolutely

144marvelous that you can celebrate this moment and so i'm praying for you that god will continue to use you to make a difference and let me say to this community regarding critical race theory we simply want to see the truth being taught that's what it's all about and if we can't handle the truth then we all have a serious problem i want to say to the community also i joined mr ruffin and saying i have my ticket and i'm on board to support hyde i'm on board to support this school board i'm on board to support our educators i'm on board to support these workers that were here begging for support and i ask that you really consider helping them to meet their needs and so i pray for you i appreciate you i love

145you and i want you to do your very best for our children because this is what it's all about stand up for truth and you will be amazed at the joy that comes at the blessings that comes as the quran camaraderie that comes as a result of us embracing truth whether we agree with it or not that's irrelevant truth is truth whether we all believe it it's true whether no one believes it and that's what i stand to say today again welcome and thank you for your service let's do this together we can do more together than we can do independent of each other and i guarantee you as we work together this school district will be the school district that it's supposed to be this is a great school district i've already had one

146graduate who's at fau right now got a ninth grader at george jenkins and i look for this next four years that i can be an empty nester but i need all of you and the community to work together let's do this get your ticket get on board and stand up for truth whether you like it or agree with it or not it's still truth thank you sir mr don brown and then christy richa richa good afternoon good evening good evening sir my name is don brown for those of you who don't know you will know shortly i want to thank my pastor who came before me because he knows i'm sort of militant sometimes i want to congratulate our new superintendent and for those of you who have been around me and let the time

147know that i've always supported superintendents for many many years i've always advocated for superintendents one even hired me looked out for me now what i'm here to talk about is the fact that we had a legislator in another county from which i am from attack board members and the superintendent threatened to try to have you all removed if you all then vote to get rid of the superintendent who just got here down to me that's threading on you know home rule you're not going to be in someplace else and tell me what to do in my house amen that's not going to happen if i'm going to be the one talking about it that's fine but you're not coming into my house telling me what to do now as far as this critical race theory

148i'm black been black for about 70 some years plus nothing gonna change that so if you don't want to hear about what you put me through you shouldn't have done it in the first place just the real facts now i don't care if you don't like what i say when i came to polk county i didn't have a two y'all messed around and let me get two dimes in trouble now understand that we're going to talk about what happens when you have not treated us right since we've been in this country now don't try to hide from it don't tell me what to put in the textbook don't tell me how to teach because what y'all don't understand everything that i'm saying is televised it's on the internet someone tweeting and doing all kinds of

149things so even if you don't teach it in the classroom you need to understand 90 to 95 percent of everything each one of us has learned was not in the classroom thank you thank you mr brown christy richa richard christie no okay uh bill young is bill young here this evening awesome come on forward and then bernita gigowski evening thank you for having me allowing me to speak commissioner i understand you're from illinois no i'm actually from miami florida oh are you yes my mistake i heard wrong um i want to speak on two things first of all i want to say that i was glad to hear earlier that you removed the mask mandate for the children i think that anybody would be well served to read a book called plague of corruption by

150judy mikovich who is a scientist and worked at the cdc and worked with mr fauci i think you'd find it very enlightening second thing i want to speak to is the teaching of critical race theory let me be clear i do not condone racism in any form against anyone i am a historian a person who loves history i'm a historian there are many good things and many bad things in the american past but the thing that bothers me about the teaching of critical race theory the way it is is set up to be taught is it teaches that there are people who are victims and then there are other people who are oppressors and when you teach children that they are either a victim or an oppressor you're teaching children that they are to hate

151and i don't agree with that i will give you a real life example my oldest daughter is white her husband is black my son-in-law they live in rochester new york where critical race theory will be taught my daughter and son-in-law had a daughter almost a year ago and as she grows up and she's taught this she will be taught that her grandfather is white so he is a male and an oppressor how can i have a relationship with my granddaughter if she is taught i am an oppressor and no good i don't want to take away from anybody's pain or anguish but i don't think instilling more pain and anguish on top of it serves the better of any of us i care about people i love people jesus christ taught us to love but

152not hate that's all i have to say thank you so much for your thank you sir thank you [Applause] bernita gigowski bernita no okay bishop mincy we won't be quick tonight because it's time for us to go but i do want to say uh welcome mr hyde and to all of you the board members truth be told truth be told uh we are in trouble truth be told truth be told the reason why some of the things that are happening is because of you selling people some of y'all came late some of y'all came been here a while so truth be told truth is the only thing will set you free i don't care what you say truth will set you free some of you have been ugly and indifferent and everything else amen and

153we just need to correct some stuff stop even trying to hide it correct it acknowledge that you're wrong when you acknowledge you're wrong then you can go forward you're going to go backwards if you don't acknowledge you have done wrong we don't want to tell the truth about the things these pope people hear them women and men crying for help let me tell you get ready get ready polk county it's going to come to your house and i told you all this the last time we were together god is not going to allow you to continue to oppress the people it won't work get ready mr hyde get your group together talk to him miss cunningham your responsibility you the leader of the board get your stuff together he will not allow you to do

154it if he do it he ain't god and i know he god these people cannot continue to work for nothing they cannot continue it hurts me to my heart every time i've been here and i've heard these people crying we need help we need help we need help we're working we're working and i've heard i wasn't here the last time but y'all got a plan in your mind you want to outsource don't outsource these bus drivers these people don't work hard for years and have not been treated fair it's wrong wrong it's wrong and right is right and almost stand for right if i have to stand by myself amen because let me tell you you're trying to save a quarter and people are hurting they need to be relied be cared about and and

155the main thing you all need to understand is every one of you are a human and these people i am crying are human beings and they have feelings feelings they feel just like you feel you may have more than they got but i can tell you one thing you can lose everything you got in the flesh it can be gone the night you can lay down and not wake up not only that but you can go everything you got you'll get sick and die and leave every quarter you got in somebody'll blow it so don't think you got everything made think about these poor people these pope children and everybody that's hurting these women out here out here crying think about them and give them what do to them and watch god bless thank you

156karen wetzel is karen wetzel here this evening daniel kneeger kaneger jimmy nelson good evening good evening jimmy nelson i reside in lake wales forgive my sunglasses i left my other prescription glasses in the vehicle not trying to look cool i'm here because i'm appreciative of this board this evening and i want to let you know that there are times for robust discussions and i've had robust discussions with several of you i appreciate you entertaining those i'm here to say that one of those robust conversations was too robust and if you'll indulge me it warrants a public apology and that public apology is directed to mr wilson so i offer that this evening i appreciate the action that you took during the workshop today i appreciate you entertaining attorney jeff childers i appreciate the time that

157you gave him i appreciate the follow-up clarification question that you asked i appreciate you allowing him to send that in to you that was a that was a crucial question uh miss miller asked a critical follow-up appreciate that mr bridges appreciate your clarification all of that mr reynolds i appreciate you going back to july of last year when your recommendation to this board was that the mass mandate should be handled under an emergency action i believe that that is true and that that now will be the case once the policy is rescinded that's a key thing and i appreciate all of that i appreciate mr hyde's recommendation to that effect i appreciate the red ribbon that miss cunningham wrapped around it it was a very good clarifying statement that you made made it clear for

158exactly what was happening and the significance of that so thank you all for what happened during the workshop today thank you for coming to consensus for action i also want to say that after having opportunity to meet with mr hyde on a couple of occasions the early results are you made a good decision i want to thank you for that i appreciate very much the line of communication that's been established it's very meaningful it facilitates cooperation it facilitates success it facilitates collaboration and that means a great deal we appreciate that appreciate that very much finally i appreciate all the chairs that are in this room this evening it's wonderful to see this room full of chairs and full of constituents and i'm glad that we're heading in that direction it was one of the things

159mr hyde and i spoke about probably has spoken with others about that as well and it's great to see it's a good day and i appreciate what's happened here today thank you thank you mr nelson okay that concludes our portion of the public comments yes go ahead please come on up miss jenkins heather jenkins i live in north lakeland i'd like to address a public comment that was made earlier i did text what she said i text to my significant other but it was followed by and as they should be not the most appropriate language but my significant other is a welder and he works in really hot conditions and and in sometimes not so good places for low wages so that's what i tell him he needs to do my father was an electrician

160my grandfather was a custodian in the school system and in the hospitals so i want to publicly apologize for for that one i shouldn't be texting in a board meeting and two i'm sorry for how it made our afscme employees feel because they are worth far more than we can give them and it's really hard to to work on salaries when you're in the finance division and when you don't have funding coming in so in my own household we deal with that when when we talk as a family and i give advice to him on what he needs to do in his workplace so i'd like to apologize to our afscme team i'd like to apologize to you the board and i'd like to apologize to our superintendent thank you miss jenkins that was very

161kind of you this evening okay seeing no one else i didn't have any other cards for any speakers um to speak madam chair yes superintendent madam chair uh just just a point and not to belabor the conversation this evening but i know that there were some who expressed both support and concern uh due to my recent participation and i think it's it's really important that i continue to demonstrate who i am as a man as an educator as a leader and someone who's focused on our school district um and i shared this with the board i was very direct with the board as to who i am my personality because if you recall i said i was interviewing you as much as you were interviewing me and that you would never turn around and question

162whether or not the same individual who sits before you or operates our school district is the same individual you interviewed you have two choices in this world you can build bridges or you can build walls and quite frankly my position on certain topics is largely irrelevant my position on all things is that all students will achieve and attain at a high level whether you agree with my participation in the critical race theory discussion what needs to be reiterated here yet again was my position simply was if we tell our community we do not teach critical race theory then they have every right in a community that over 50 percent of our students are minorities to question then what exactly do you do to support children in our schools that is my purpose that is my

163focus and so i'm sorry for those of you who are disappointed quite frankly i would ask you to embrace the fact that i in a very short period of time and willing to take on very difficult conversations and topics and i will not cower i will not hide and i will not run it is important for us to address issues and come to consensus and understanding of each other's positions our own frustrations and how ultimately it impacts our school district and so i'm proud of the fact that i stood there and i'm proud of the fact and thank you for everyone who spoke in favor and thank you to those of you who shared concerns tonight because it afforded me the opportunity to clarify my position on this my position at the end of the

164day is how do we best support our students and as we discussed if you watch the workshop i cited some of the very same data that i shared at that forum we have a long way to go for all children in our community all and all does mean all we have to create better opportunities for equity we are a nation that's struggling i'll just let me limit it to gender instead of race to help exemplify what i'm talking about we know that nationally we have fewer women going into stem engineering and science professions we have an obligation to encourage that to happen and so at the end of the day we will support all learners to the greatest extent possible and eliminate all barriers to their potential success i will continue to emphasize and focus

165on those areas and if that is not what polk county public schools wants then i will accept that but that is my position on these topics and i'm appreciative of all of our community partners who have extended an opportunity for me to come meet with them and talk about the hard topics talking with each one of our municipalities about how frustrated they are about how they feel like they've been left behind at times they're frustrated about the lack of resources the status and quality of their schools you've heard staff share their frustrations with salaries this is what i'm walking into three and a half weeks on the job and i am very much on the job and working hard and i'm truly dedicated to solving as many of these issues as quickly as possible and

166i have a strong dedicated team around me and i'm very much appreciative of the support from our board thank you madam president madam chair thank you superintendent hyde once again i'll say it thank you for your leadership okay at this time the next order of business board members is adjournment there being no further business this meeting of the polk county school board is now adjourned please drive safely and thank you for your attendance [Music] you