001the policy updates still 51 or did you change the number okay good afternoon and welcome to the polk county school board meeting for october 27 2020 and i'd like to take this opportunity to welcome everybody here today we are grateful that you could join us so the first order of business is to call the meeting to order and now i would like to ask bishop mincy if he would be so kind to come up to the microphone and lead us in the invocation i would like to ask you to please stand and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance bishop minsey shall we pray kind father in jesus name we are so thankful for the gift of just another wonderful day god you have been so good to us you blessed us in spite of
002us we're so blessed to be assembled here today in this center again for another school board meeting thank you god for the chairwoman and all of the board members superintendent and all of her staff thank you oh god for everyone that have come from far near throughout this district to be a part of this meeting god we're here today because we need you and we ask you for your help we ask for your guidance we ask for your strength we ask for your direction we're in a pandemic pandemic situation that we don't know which way to go but you know the directions that we need we ask for your wisdom and your knowledge and your understanding and help us oh god to look to you and trust you bless this meeting and let everything be
003done to your glory your honor and your praise and let it be a fruitful meeting to all that will be here and we will give you glory honor and praise we ask it in the wonderful name of our lord jesus christ we pray amen amen and at this time thank you bishop mincy and at this time i would like to ask board member lynn wilson to lead us in the pledge of allegiance united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated thank you mr wilson the first item today is to accept the agenda madam superintendent are there any revisions to the agenda as printed yes there will be item c12 approval of the september 29 2020 work
004session meeting minutes at item item c13 approval of october 13 2020 work session meeting minutes at item item c17 interlocal agreement for coronavirus funds move item to r-48 item c-18 continuation casualty claims program administrative services update item item c37 recommendations for administrative and instructional personnel actions update item item r50 acquisition of 2.26 acres of land across from the bryant stadium update item that concludes all the revisions for our meeting today thank you madam superintendent the chair will entertain a motion to accept the agenda for october 27 2020 with the noted revisions do i have a motion in a second second we have a motion and 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 aye all those opposed
005like sign the motion carries unanimously the next item today is our special recognitions superintendent byrd would you please lead us through our special recognitions today my pleasure first i would like to ask school board member billy townsend to step down for special recognitions at this time with sarah beth reynolds please read the red ribbon proclamation samantha barwig coalition coordinator for the interact alliance will be accepting this proclamation along with jeanette crowley president of the interact alliance katie lilly and lauren martin members of the youth pac membership group leadership group whereas substance abuse is the most common risk factor impacting youth and success in society and the prevention education programs offered by interact alliance have proven to be effective tools in reducing risk factors and strengthening protective factors with res recent research showing that 84 of
006polk county students in 6th through 12th grades choose not to drink alcohol and whereas interact alliance has been providing prevention education to youth and adults in polk hardy and highlands county communities since 1985 working diligently to reduce the abuse and underage use of harmful substances along with involvement in risky behaviors through community awareness awareness and involvement prevention education economic support and leadership development and whereas interact alliance serves as the fiscal agent for the stand-up polk adult-based and youth impact youth-based coalitions for a free polk and works in collaboration with the county and local law enforcement to host the annual own the upside prevention summit medication take back events and establish permanent prescription depositories to safely and properly dispose of unused medication and whereas the 35th annual red ribbon campaign will be highlighted by the red
007ribbon challenge presented by interact alliance and title sponsor public supermarkets incorporated and held virtually this year due to the covid19 pandemic to offer children in grades k through 8 the opportunity to complete a series of fun challenges and activities each week during october based on elements of healthy living such as nutrition healthy mind healthy body kindness and tolerance help save the planet and healthy lifestyle now therefore be it resolved that the polk county school board of polk county do hereby proclaim the month of october as national red ribbon month every citizen is encouraged to wear a red ribbon to symbolize our commitment to a healthy and safe environment for each citizen and participate in events during the month of october and throughout the year that support a positive healthy lifestyle high school we provided you
008guys with red goody bags that are on your tables i wanted to thank you guys for recognizing national red ribbon week though we are not having an in-person event our red ribbon virtual challenge has helped keep the positive family connectedness that the red ribbon run stands for we kicked off the virtual challenge with national eat dinner with your family day on september 28th we hope that through the challenges families can continue to create stronger bonds well after the challenges end this week is the last week of the challenges so do not forget to sign up and submit your challenges before the end of the day on october 31st again thank you and have a great evening thank you all for leading the way as such positive young ladies and young men and thank you to
009our sponsors for that one next with lisa miller please read the national disability awareness month proclamation diversity director chandra hall will come forward with the esc director diane taylor to accept the proclamation whereas 2020 marks the 30th year passage of the americans with disabilities act of 1990 and the 75th anniversary of the national disability employee awareness month and whereas students and staff with disabilities are all of all racial ethnic educational social and economic backgrounds and are all valued members in the polk county public schools and whereas polk county public schools encourages partnerships between the district post-secondary institutions and the community at large to promote equality as well as equity in the hiring practices for people with disabilities and whereas there are more than 14 900 students with disabilities enrolled in our k-12 system to include
010our post-secondary schools and whereas early intervention education education and employment are considered vital to enabling students with disabilities to enjoy the rights of citizen citizenship and whereas the polk county public schools are committed to promoting the four principles of the american disabilities act by providing instruction related to disability history and the disability rights movement through the school curriculum and other school related activities now therefore be it resolved that the school board of polk county do hereby proclaim october 5th through the 16th 2020 at disability awareness month the hi my name is chandra hall i'm the director of equity and diversity management and i just want to take a few moments to um thank you for recognizing disability awareness month part of my role is to promote equity diversity and aware of diversity awareness and inclusion
011in our district and that includes our disabled americans and our students mrs diane taylor i would like to present the proclamation to her because she has been very instrumental in our district as the esc director not only as a director as a teacher she supported me personally and all of our students in our schools in our district over 30 years so we wanted to acknowledge her today in a few of our programs thank you so much for that wonderful and i do accept this proclamation for uh on behalf of students with disabilities i started in the district somewhere around 32 years ago it was one of those burning passions that i had to become an educator i started out as a paraprofessional to be exact so to go further it was something that was driving
012me to do that it was wonderful mentors that i had in my life to actually help me to obtain that goal and that push was toward something that burned in my heart and that was for students with disabilities i've been in the field with students with disabilities for most of my time in education you have to have a passion and a burning for that to happen you have to have good people in your path to help you along the way i'd like to acknowledge what right now one of the mentors that i had passed away last week some of you know that and um i thank her for being that inspiration to me and i realized that being in this role you also have to be an inspiration to others with me today i have
013the ese senior managers who took time out of their day to come here for this celebration and i want to lead by example and make sure that these footsteps that i make are footsteps that they can also follow thank you for acknowledging me today i do appreciate that and thank you for coming out and spending time with us this evening to receive this proclamation thank you and congratulations to you all as well next i would like to ask sarah beth reynolds please read the hispanic heritage month proclamation diversity director chandra hall will come forward with laughman oaks elementary principal wanda ponte enyajera gracia hopefully i said that correctly with gibbon street pre-k to make sure they were in the room already they're coming whereas the senate and house of representatives of the united states congress
014has authorized the designation of national hispanic heritage month and whereas polk county public schools embraces diversity and promotes cultural awareness within our organization for all students as well as staff and whereas polk county public schools recognizes that diversity and inclusion is one of our biggest assets as a school district that serves more than 107 thousand students and whereas the school board of polk county currently has 37 percent students and 20 employees of hispanic descent and whereas polk county public schools recognizes the hispanic culture as an attribute and acknowledges the many contributions made to our schools community and our country by hispanic stakeholders and whereas the school board of polk county also recognizes the business businesses and economic development of the hispanic community as a link to the educational advancement of our hispanic students now therefore
015be it resolved the school board of polk county hereby proclaims september 15th to october 15 2020 as national hispanic heritage month [Applause] and just really quick i'll be accepting on their behalf loftman oaks did a really neat project as well as other schools but they did a very neat project virtually to share some um hispanic heritage and history at their school through literacy and i thought they did such an outstanding job i wanted to acknowledge them today it's all accepted on their behalf thank you so much thank thank you next with lisa miller read the lgbtq history month proclamation diversity director chandra hall will remain up front with members of the gay straight alliance club to accept this proclamation tonight is full of inclusive uh diversity i think this is grand and i appreciate one
016of our clubs being represented we have several throughout the district whereas lesbian gay bi and transgender americans have made and continue to make lasting contributions to our society and whereas lgbt month reminds both the lgbt and wider communities of important roles lgbt people make and have taken in creating the social legal and political worlds we live in and whereas this month we recognize the immeasurable contributions of lgbt americans and we renew our commitment to the struggle for the equal rights for lgbt students and staff and whereas lgbt educators students and families should be supported to live in an affirmative life with dignity and respect and whereas 18.2 percent of students in florida identify as lgbt and are more likely to be bullied at school compared to their peers whereas the polk county school district appreciates
017and recognizes the importance of lgbt history month as an effective means of educating and calling to action the stakeholders to work together to promote equal protection of all polk county students and staff regardless of orientation gender identification or expression now therefore be it resolved the school board of polk county does hereby proclaim the month of october as lgbtq history month thank you so much um for having us um this is the fourth year that i have been the sponsor for the gsa gender and sexuality alliance at my school winter haven high school this club has been a safe haven for our students who are part of the lgbtqia community and their friends as you know lgbtqia youth face some of the greatest amounts of bullying and stigma from fellow students and sometimes even staff without
018a space where they know they are supported and seen many can suffer from depression isolation and sometimes even suicide i know that because i was one of them members of gsa have come to me every single year and said that they finally felt safe enough to come out whether it's being open about their sexuality their gender or lack thereof after joining gsa i am proud that our campus has been able to support gsa to create a campus of inclusivity awareness and camaraderie at winterhaven high school mrs williams announces every morning to be kind and supporting our lgbtqia students is how we do that we've come such a long way but we have miles more to go thank you so much for this recognition and we are deeply appreciative [Applause] will jeanette crowley senior coordinator of
019strategic partnerships come forward for a united way of central florida special presentation um um can you hear me okay all right thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity it truly is a pleasure every year to serve as the district campaign coordinator for united way of central florida and the district campaign 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 one can do their best at school or work 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
020florida 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 and school readiness scores as well as tutoring homework assistance mentoring services for at-risk students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade because united we all win today i have the honor of sharing our 2019 district wide campaign results with you as well as celebrate our top schools and department who contributed to the highest fundraising results towards last year's campaign because of the generous support of our employees polk county public schools raised more than 96 thousand dollars last year and among more than six hundred companies we ranked number eight and total giving at this time i'd like to invite christina kreiser-jackson president and ceo and jessica
021garcia resource development manager from united way of central florida to say a few words about our partnership and help me recognize our top schools and department good evening everyone we're here today to say thank you we are so grateful for the tremendous leadership that you all provide and that the polk county public schools provides for our community the last couple of months have been interesting and i know that you all have seen firsthand the families the children and the individuals that have been worked because of the generosity of the polk county public schools your teachers and your faculty in the last couple of months 17 food drops were established in partnership with the school board and you are actually hosting some of those food drops over 450 families are visiting those food drops twice a
022month we also have the two on one service which you all have done a tremendous job of advocating on our behalf and making sure your families receive that information in a typical environment we're receiving about 500 calls we're receiving 4 500 calls on average every month in addition to that there's services under health education income our financial stability we have girls inc boys and girls club ymca a lot of these programs that have been so resilient and it's because they believe in what you're doing with our students during the day how you're helping them work virtually and they want to be a part of that accomplishment and those goals that you have set for your school board so we want to thank you all but we also want to thank the faculty the staff everyone
023that's involved we see it from each school each position in those schools all the generous support you provide on an annual basis so as jeanette had mentioned 25 years in partnership that we've been in partnership with the polk county public schools and again you continue to amaze us um so today is about thank you thank you for all these tremendous leads we were actually just sitting in an another room and we didn't realize we were surrounded by all the champions because there's a lot that work that goes on and a lot that work on this campaign each and every year um we do want to thank jeanette for her leadership and we also want to um thank marissa green for her board leadership but superintendent byrd thank you so much for your advocacy your leadership
024we realize that it starts from the top down and you truly inspire others to give back so thank you very much thank you all right in our elementary school category this is also always a battle for the top um so this year 2019 we had highlands grove elementary and they raised six thousand two hundred and forty one dollars so i wanna say a huge congratulations to highlands grove elementary it's always a battle with them [Applause] all right in our middle school category is kathleen middle they raised two thousand hundred 531 and remember they remained as the top middle school even when a tornado gave extensive damage to their building um but i can't just say enough about their resilience their driving their dedication and as principal gregory says we're kathleen strong so thank you so
025much though for what all you did in our high school division we have mulberry senior high who raise a total of 3 309 and since i've been doing this for six years they are the top high school that you've come in as a top high school for the first time right yes yes and in our department category we have support services that raise three thousand one hundred twenty four dollars and twenty six cents and kayla is always uh allen is our champion there um under the leadership of uh and rob so i want to thank you all for your support and all that you do and in our combination category you have there yep um we have once again fort meade middle senior who raise a total of 3 159 and 20 cents and they
026raised almost a thousand more than they did in the previous year so i want to say congratulations to you i would like are all the principals still here i do want to give you an opportunity to say a few words so amy you want to come up here and say a few words absolutely um well i want to thank of course my staff and i have a guidance counselor who leads the charge angie's story so i definitely want to give her credit but i do feel like united way is a way to show that our staff is not leaving any child left and it's a way to give and to fill in those gaps and so it attributes to my staff on how much they care because it's just an addition to what they do
027all day long and they reach in their wallets and yet they give yet again so again i just want to thank my staff at our school we really emphasize giving and giving to our community our biggest givers are our students so we're glad that we could just be a part of the team i would just like to say thank you to united way for all they do for the community it's a great program and all the lives that they touch i'd like to thank jeanette for being our cheerleader for united way um she really gets us through it and it's always so much fun and then last but not least my support service family because without them i couldn't do this so thank you everyone and thank you to all the champions that are out
028there that are on the front lines making sure that we support our community next was steve cochran senior director of multiple pathways and danielle diconcilio assistant principal of east area adult school come forward for an adult community educators special presentation good evening good evening thank you superintendent deputy superintendent board members for having us here today uh i want to talk about ace ace is the adult community educators of florida ace represents promotes advocates for adult and community education professionals and volunteers through its commitment to improve and expand adult and community education programs throughout the state ace offers seven state awards each year at its annual conference this year hulk won five of those awards every county in the state could have a nominee but pope won 70 percent of the awards i would like to
029introduce our award winners today four state teacher of the year leah sonoba west area adult school leah has 35 years in education and has been at west area since 1991 20 29 years her name is synonymous with ged success congratulations our next winner state non-instructional support staff of the year is terminal operator sherry bigelow of west area adult school with 26 years in education at and 23 at west area she is truly the heart of the school thank you very much now you've seen this young lady before and we're proud to have her here again state volunteer of the year is esther hammer east area adult school she has served for 23 years at east as a volunteer she's a local celebrity celebrity and was recently featured in the ledger for her greatness miss uh
030uh hamer hall was dedicated on wednesday december 2nd at the next sac meeting and uh and that should be a tentative appointment yes we're very proud of you thank you for all that you do state business partner of the year rotary club of auburndale president danny chandler east very adult school congratulations auburndale rotary serves on their sac offers scholarships to students and businesses in rotary offer to they offer and businesses in rotary offer to employ students they are truly a great business and community partner for our adult school thank you very much and our last award why didn't we get all seven you gotta have something to strive this is pretty good i know now that i've told her that we'll have seven next year great job all right state media promotions of the year
031chris stumpf of stumpy's marketing in auburndale east very adult school they make banners flyers pens tents tents uh and shirts he is the boys of east derry adult school thank you so much for partnering with eachery adult school and all the people that you saw here today are one of the reasons that we have possibly the best adult education programs in the state we should be very proud thank you and congratulations to all the winners for your dedication and hard work and we really appreciate what you do for our community thank you at this time will regional superintendents benjamin henry and patricia barnes come forward for a special recognition of principal of the year and assistant principal of the year good yes uh good afternoon boyd i'm so excited to announce the uh principal year
032for polk county uh i wrote a couple of words just to tell you a little bit about our winner um otivia may begin her journey with polk county schools in 1993 as a paraprofessional and then she became a classroom teacher and eventually a school-based administrator miss may referred to education as her ministry she always enjoyed spreading the words about the great things her students and staff are achieving at armadale central this is her sixth year at avondale central during this time she has been able to transform armadale central to by reducing the discipline rate and increasing the strong relationship with her stakeholders which has resulted in her school grade increasing to a c i'm honored and very proud to announce our 2021 principle of the year octavia may [Applause] thank you dr henry to superintendent
033byrd the board deputy superintendent hill and to my supervisor dr henry and all the other regional superintendents thank you so much for this honor for i know the plans i have for you and i'm so thankful that i allow the lord to direct my path and to keep me as a servant leader to pope county public schools allow me to thank my parents layland and dr peggy earl my husband derek may and my children for inspiring me and keeping me grounded also my staff at armadale central elementary who supports my vision thank you [Applause] good evening good evening superintendent byrne to all the board members and everyone present i have the opportunity to present to you our assistant principal of the year and i am excited that that is miss tally miller we are so
034excited for this opportunity three words came to mind when i think of her she's always very professional she's dedicated and she's caring no one's giving more instructional care to the students at crystal lake middle school than miss miller side of her principal but it's her night tonight it's hard to be in the second seat but she makes it so easy because she works so well with everyone the students the faculty and the staff were just elated with this opportunity to show you what they've seen all along a wonderful educator who's dedicated to making the lives better for the students in polk county so we are excited tonight to present to you our assistant principal of the year for polk county public schools mrs talley miller thank you superintendent bird the school board super deputy superintendent
035hill thank you guys very much um i am honored and very humbled to have this opportunity to receive this award with there are so many wonderful educators out there and for me to be chosen amongst everybody i am very humbled from that thank you ms barnes for all of your support and miss cotter who's been i've worked under her and she has really helped grow and develop me into the leader that i have become today um i'm very very thankful and then my family who puts up with me at all times of the day coming home late or leaving at 4am to go for a run so that i can get to work on time thank you guys everybody i'm very thankful for this opportunity okay congratulations to both our administrators and thank you for
036representing us and standing in the front of all your other colleagues for making sure we take care of children first so thank you again madam chair this concludes our recognitions for this evening thank you madam superintendent okay we're going to move on um the next item is public comments on agenda items so i'd like to ask is there anyone in the audience who wishes to come forward to speak to an item on the agenda except of course for the public hearing is there anyone who would like to come forward and speak i do have two individuals already noted um it's on the regular agenda um so let me see we might yes we'll go ahead and take them now janine rodino if you would please come forward good afternoon if you would state your name
037and address for the record and you have three minutes to speak i am a resident of mulberry florida according to the interlocal agreement for coronavirus relief funds the school board has been allocated funds from the county quote for expenditures which were not accounted for in the school board's budget most recently approved as a march 27 2020 end quote in addition section 4b states that the school board quote will not use funding provided under this agreement for expenditures when i previously received funding end quote furthermore these funds are to be used for as subsections 1 and 2 of section 4a specify necessary expenditures incurred due to the coronavirus pandemic and not part of the regularly budgeted costs as of march 27 2020. the financial officer wants to save this money for a future rainy day what
038about the downpour we're currently standing in our students are struggling without additional support polk county public schools claim to put students first how are you putting students first when you force teachers to educate campus and e-learners simultaneously how are you putting students first when you have more than 40 e-learners in one class section or more than 200 e-learners on teacher rosters how are you putting students first when you refuse to use corona coronavirus relief funds to support your teachers who in turn support their students how are you putting students first when you won't give their teachers more time to plan effective lessons that benefit blended learning how are you putting students first when you refuse to hire additional teachers with the relief funding to reduce class sizes how are you putting students first by putting
039a hiring freeze in effect where schools are fighting to fill crucial teaching positions yet the district manages to hire two administrative roles that they claim are commission critical that each bank a hundred to a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year it must be nice to support yourselves with the top heavy district where everyone can delegate their jobs instead of doing them on their own but you provide no relief for opportunities for your classroom teachers who are risking their health daily a chance to delegate for the benefit of their students when you ignore the request for support to survive this year from teachers you're also neglecting to support guide and give our students the best chance students first what a joke it's just heartbreaking that our students are your punchline thank you thank you very
040much and next i'd like to ask stephanie yoakam to come up to the podium and i think miss yocum you already kind of know the drill so stephanie yoakam president of polk education association i'm speaking to agenda item 12 uh in reference to the work session minutes from september 29th uh and that's where you guys talked uh mr prone had given you guys a budget update uh there's a lot of good information in there and i want to give you guys some numbers that i've crunched um and to preface this i want to say that you guys could stop this impasse now that we're currently at with the district bargaining team uh the only there seems to be a misconception here that the only thing on the um impasse list is the teacher salary allocation
041and i get you guys wanting to get a special magistrate opinion on that because the law is very um up to interpretation but there are three other items that we are at impasse over that are well within your purview to deal with now and so we have our pera and our secretary clerical contracts to where our proposed raise for those folks that would bring them up to a minimum of ten dollars an hour which if if amendment two passes you guys are gonna have to do anyway so why not be proactive in doing it now for your folks instead of waiting until we have to be reactive again and so in the general fund our proposal only cost the district 2.1 million dollars to to bring our folks up to ten dollars an hour and
042that's not even a livable wage but it's getting closer and to give everybody a three to four percent raise it's above ten dollars an hour and if you're looking at non-general fund money the total would be about four million dollars currently from your afr report from 1920 you have an assigned an unassigned fund balance of 52.6 million dollars which is about a 6.4 fund balance right now we're only asking for two to four million dollars of that if the non-general fund allocations can't pick in their part and so that is a small price to pay to pay your frontline workers that are the backbone of our schools and services for our students the other piece is the blended learning stipend that's on the table that you guys have not spent 18 million dollars of your
043own coronavirus funds what janine had alluded to over there um our proposal for blended learning which is a monster of a job it's almost impossible to do talk to your teachers that are doing it on the front line they're they're hurting they're breaking and they're leaving we have to give them relief somehow either through some extra compensation or even possibly some more planning or something but we're asking for compensation at this point and so you have 18 million dollars of coronavirus money that you have been given by the federal government and if we were to do this for the whole entire year our proposal is about 1.3 million of that 18 to pay the people that are doing the work on the ground for student success and so three of the four items you guys
044could solve up right now if you wanted to take the teacher salary increase allocation to the special magistrate but you choose not to so i urge you to rethink that and put our pairs and our secretary thank you so much miss yoakum okay is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to come forward to speak on agenda items not the public hearing once again if you please state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address the board sarah gantt davenport florida good evening my name is sarah again i have seven years of experience working as a speech-language pathologist for polk county public schools i'm speaking tonight again on behalf of all speech-language pathologists working for pcps the crisis we are bringing to your attention tonight is the district's
045proposal to distribute the teacher allocation funds unfairly financially harming non-instructional staff wrongfully including slps this catastrophic proposal seeks to give starting teacher raises by taking income away from those categorized as non-instructional staff we are uphold that speech-language pathologists are labeled non-instructional when we instruct children daily in speech and language skills we are appalled that we are not deemed non-instructional when the district pays for our services we're magically labeled instructional again we are appalled that the district allows richard for foreign who has was not elected by the voters in polk county to use political manipulation at our bargaining table let me remind you that slps bring in a revenue stream to the district through medicaid billing program if the proposal to distribute the teacher allocation funds is accepted the district can expect an interruption in this
046revenue stream we will not tolerate the district's proposal to financially harm us it is a travesty to all slps to be left behind in both respect and monetary compensation we have obtained master's degrees in our field of specialty we also hold licenses from the florida department of health and national board certification from the american speech language hearing association it is exactly this level of credentialing which affords the district the means by which to reap financial gains from our services slp is bringing a fortune to the district through the medicaid billing program we urge the board to ensure equitable raises for all who work hard to see students progress we too must be recognized and given equal financial advancement alongside our colleagues thank you and thank you to billy townsend for your service thank you very
047much i believe the rest of the folks are for general items that would come up in the public do you have something that's on the agenda okay please come forward hi i'm christy mccullough 24 lake euro head drive winner haven florida and i am a proud 19-year veteran teacher according to the district's pay proposal they believe i'm worth two dollars and sixty cents more an hour than someone directly out of college and i have an issue with that first of all i have a professional certificate i have four different subject area endorsements i have two teaching endorsements many of the people you hire have what we call a temporary certificate which means they don't have these things they have three years to get it secondly out of all the certificates in florida there are 1765
048people certified in all of the mathematics 1431 people certified in biology 814 people certified physics 621 people certified agriculture i'm certified in all these i've taught all these i can teach any of these any day you want even with the hiring freeze you guys have right now you would hire me for two of these jobs the state defines them three of them as critical teacher shortage areas i'm more something i currently teach six different subjects each day not six different periods six different subjects some of them two or three at once i do this blended i do this in person any learning and contrary to what the district says it is not the same job it is about two times the work to do it online as it is in person doing both takes me
049three to four times as much time as it would if i was teaching in person i can dream of a new program find the state standards research it write the curriculum find a community partner and implement it and i have i can proctor testing sound silly 31 out of 44 days since school has started we've had testing we've had whole days where students have nothing but sit in the cafeteria with the subs and long-term subs well we got to test and i can find something for my kids to do while they're sitting in that gym to be productive and the most important thing is i can be a resource to the new teacher that one that just is getting started we all agree teachers should be paid a living rage but teachers are not going
050to stay because of more money they're going to stay because of help with people like me they're going to stay because of the help i got as a brand new teacher so after hearing that am i really only worth 2.66 more an hour than someone right out of college by the way new teachers also need secretaries to answer the phone to enroll the students new teachers need lunchroom personnel to feed them they need custodians to keep that room clean they would not be able to do their job without those people and those people aren't worth much at all they're worth minimum wage they could go to walmart or publix and make the same amount of money the district is proposing paying new teachers 61 cents an hour more than the pa proposal that money will
051not make a mistake people like me will make them stay please respect us thank you thank you very much [Music] okay the next item for our board tonight is to approve four sets of minutes the first set of minutes is for the september 8th 2020 school board meeting the chair will entertain a motion to accept september 8 2020 school board meeting minutes as printed do i have a motion and a second so moved second okay we 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 like sign motion carries the second set of minutes is for the september 8th 2020 school board work session the chair will entertain a motion to accept the
052september 8th 2020 school board work session minutes as printed do i have a motion and a second so moved 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 like sign motion carries the third set of minutes is for the september 29 2020 school board work session the chair will entertain a motion to accept the september 29th 2020 school board work session minutes as printed do i have a motion and a second so i moved 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 i i all those opposed like sign motion
053carries the fourth set of minutes is for the october 13th 2020 school board work session the chair will entertain a motion to accept the october 13 2020 school board work session minutes as printed do i have a motion and a 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 i all those opposed like sign motion carries unanimously the next item on our agenda today is the approval of the consent agenda for october 27 2020 the chair will entertain a motion to accept the october 27th 2020 consent agenda as printed do i have a motion and a second so moved i have a motion and a second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to
054call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed like sign motion carries unanimously the next item we have today is new administrator announcements mrs bird do we have any announcements today yes we do we have four coming before you today we have douglas harwell system principal bartow high school alissa moriti assistant principal lake ship elementary school scott reeves director support services and donald stevenson director safety and vehicle services this concludes all new administrators for this evening thank you superintendent byrd are any of them in our audience today to be recognized please come forward tell us a little bit about yourself and and congratulations well thank you ms cunningham my name is scott reeves director of support services i've been with the district proudly for 16 years now
055i started out as a vehicle service technician and with the great leadership that we have over there i was able to work my way up and miss byrne i want to say it's been a privilege to serve with you for the last couple and the board thank you for all all your support and encouragement thank you sir congratulations thank you very much thank you scott and i do believe they want to get a picture yes on the banner and please forgive me i did not look that direction but thank you i enjoy working with you as well therefore send no others present this will conclude our new administrators for today wonderful thank you superintendent byrd next we come to our regular agenda under business services general items we have item 48 interlocal agreement for coronavirus
056funds the chair will entertain a motion to approve the interlocal agreement for coronavinus funds between the state of florida and the polk county school board for the cares act do i have a motion and a second so moved second i have a motion and a second is there any discussion mr townsend yeah i pulled this off of the consent agenda earlier just because hey it's nine million and five hundred thousand dollars that's a lot of money um i think um i'd ask if we have a uh you know an e easy accounting for how it's going to be spent to uh tonight i mean i i i asked that not too long ago so the man may not have had the chance to to do do do do that yet it's my understanding that's going
057into the fund balance is that right the 9.5 that's coming from border county commission yeah that is actually going to come in and it's going to pay for i believe mr perron gave an overview of like the ppe materials that it's been utilized for once that we have to submit that to the board of county commission um as well and we will make sure we send all of the line to the board i mean to the full board okay thank you and i i just i was i was was noting in in reading the agreement itself it's um it's kind of an an interesting phrase it says school board hereby certifies rep represents and warrants to the county that such amount together with any other cares that funding and has received from any source whether
058municipal state federal or otherwise as of the effective date of this agreement does not exceed the amount of five hundred dollars per day elementary is it and secondary student enrolled in polk county schools under the direction and governance of the school board it's it's interesting that the agreement itself talks about our schools as being under the direction and governance i mean that's those are that's pretty specific terms i think it's um just for everybody to think to think to think to think about are those schools under the direction and governance of the school school board um i don't really think that they are i mean not in any practical sense um and i think that's the interesting thing to consider you know as next board's coming in and what how how how how how things
059are gonna are gonna be done and and and the relationship with the state and the governor and all all all of that um you know i think the whole whole nature of the role of the school school board is kind of up for grabs um and i so i just i just wanted to to highlight that and then just i want to thank the county commission for you know as i understand this they got a big chunk of money as part of the care cares act and and were uh quick to to turn to us to see if they could help so i i appreci appreciate that um and just just just figured it was a big enough amount of money and important enough to discuss off of consent thank you are there any other
060comments by the board seeing none i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i all those opposed like sign motion carries unanimously next we have item under facilities and operations general items property management item number 49 lease agreement for florida head start and first start at the wilford smith center the chair will entertain a motion to approve extending the lease agreement with the board of county commissioners for four additional years for the period through 2024. do i have a motion and a second move approval 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 i i all those opposed like sign motion carries unanimously under facilities and operations general items
061property management we have item number acquisition of 2.26 acres of land across from bryant stadium in lakeland the chair will entertain a motion to approve the purchase of 2.26 acres of land from the city of lakeland for 146 thousand dollars do i have a motion and a second approval second okay we have a motion and a second is there any discussion okay mr townsend yeah oh were you going on i didn't know go ahead mr wilson go ahead one of y'all well i i wanted to comment on this as i i spoke a little bit about it during the work session uh there's another group it's a non-profit group um central florida healthcare who an organization that's interested in the same piece of property and they've asked us to delay the vote on this but
062we the lakeland football program is a nationally recognized program so clearly we need a football stadium for them to play in we have bryant stadium and that means we need parking and this is an opportunity for us to secure parking for that for that uh football stadium um i asked superintendent berna know she's meeting with the ceo of central florida health care in the next week or so to talk about a possible agreement with the with them that might be a benefit to our community obviously we have a responsibility to to uh work with our community in in and find win-win situations wherever we can and so um i'm hoping that that we can at least talk to them i'm not sure anything that will come of that but we have a responsibility talk to
063sit down and talk to them and see if there's something we can do to to create a a win-win uh situation for everyone but in the meantime i think it's important that we move forward with the acquisition of this piece of property and then after we've done that perhaps talk about uh whatever they want to talk about bringing our community uh all of our community partners to the table to discuss whatever options might be on the table so i will be voting to approve this this evening and and i'm hoping we can at least have a conversation about what uh what that might look like in in the best interest of our community a little bit down the road thank you madam chair thank you mr wilson mr townsend yeah just to to echo what
064lens said i'm i'm just going to explain why i'm also going to vote for it i mean i i'm fully fully supportive of public ownership of that property um you know of of us owning it i think the you know potentially a vote here is leverage to make sure that discussion happens in a serious serious way but but a a six one vote wouldn't wouldn't be that um you know what i what i hope is that we will take the opportunity to to really sit down seriously with a couple of good part partners with us which are the city of lakeland and central florida health and and make a serious effort to see what can be done there um you know again as a board board member sometimes the only the only leverage you have
065to get something done over staff is to withhold a vote that's not worth doing here but i i i just do hope that we'll we'll we'll take it seriously thanks thank you is there any other comments miss fortney to clarify where the money for this purchase is coming from so that our staff knows just to go on record for miss fortney this will be purchased with sales tax money thank you superintendent bird any other comments seeing none i'd like to go ahead and call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed like sign motion carries unanimously now it is time for our public hearing i would like to recess the school board meeting and open up our public hearing this evening at this time i would like
066to call the public hearing for october 27 2020 to order is there anyone in the audience that would like to come forward to address item 51 which is policy updates on our public hearing agenda today if so i would ask that you please come forward to the microphone okay seeing none we shall proceed uh miss reynolds pulled the neola policy 8450.1 protective facial coverings during pandemic epidemic events the chair will entertain a motion to approve this new policy 8450.01 addressing mask requirements for staff vendors and visitors do i have a motion and a second so move second i have a motion and a second is there any discussion miss reynolds thank you madam chair and this discussion came up earlier when we were looking at putting masks into our dress code policy while i understand
067the benefits of mass during this pandemic not every pandemic is exactly the same and so to say that we're going to require face masks when a pandemic occurs whenever that might be i think is a little bit premature and not necessarily something that belongs in our bylaws but it's on a case-by-case basis so i'll be voting against putting this in our bylaws this evening thank you any other comments mr townsend i just think it's worth noting i um i had some someone a couple of weeks ago call to complain about continuing to require mass in schools at after the lakeland city commission dropped their their man and date i mean i think if you paid atten attention to the presentation this morning to the extent that we've been successful and um you know it's it's
068it's hard hard to say based on what data says but like the the the experience of serious sick sicknesses don't seem to have been too bad at this point i think the mask mandate has a big role to play in that um you know whether even even when compliance isn't 100 it's that's a really important thing and it's it's if you want to keep schools open or keep schools reasonably safe i think this is a a keystone of it so i'm always fully supportive of it thank you mr townsend anyone else any other comments okay if not i'd like to go ahead and call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed nay the motion carries six to one next we have the adoption of both the
069recommended staff and the ola policy updates the chair will now entertain a motion to adopt both the recommended staff and neola policy updates do i have a motion and a second so moved second i have a motion and a second is there any discussion seeing none i'd like to go ahead and call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed like sign motion carries unanimously at this time i would like to go ahead and close the public hearing and convene the school board meeting the next item on our agenda is our superintendent's report mrs byrd do you have an update for us today i do the next work session and board meeting will be held on november 17 2020. the work session will begin at 12 30
070pm followed by the board meeting at 5 p.m both meetings will take place here at jim miles professional development center located at 5204 u.s highway 98 south in lakeland florida that concludes my report for today thank you thank you madam superintendent next we have our attorney's report which will be given by mr bridges thank you madam chair the first item that we have i was asked when the board approved some months ago school board resolution 2019-2020-12 and and that has to do with the temporary suspension of school board policies during certain emergencies impacting the health safety and well-being of students employees volunteers in the community so i'm bringing that to you tonight as i have at every regular meeting of the school board since its adoption thank you mr bridges the chair will now entertain
071a motion to approve the extension of school board resolution 2020 number 12. do i have a motion and a second approval second okay 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 aye all those opposed nay nay so we're going to probably have to do um yep will you okay so let's start district one hi district two nay district three i district four name district five okay district six aye and district seven aye okay so um the vote carries four to three and um and is and has passed everybody understand that four eyes and three mays it has passed thank you baby i've been requested to uh to ask for authority to advertise public
072hearings for two upcoming board meetings the first is a public hearing to be held during the school board meeting on december the 8th to approve the proposed attendance zone for the new davenport high school thank you the chair will now entertain a motion to approve authority to advertise a public hearing to be held during the school board meeting on december 8 2020 to approve the proposed attendance zones for the new davenport high school do i have a motion and a second so moved 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 like sign motion carries unanimously thank you madam chair and the in the last item is authority to advertise
073the public hearing to be held during the school board meeting on january 26 2021 to approve the charter contract for bridge prep academy the chair will entertain a motion to approve authority to advertise the public hearing to be held during the school board meeting on january 26 2021 to approve the charter contract for bridge prep academy do i have a motion and a second second i have a motion and a second is there any discussion mr townsend um i think the last time those folks were here um they were pretty threatening toward miss miller and and and this courtney and lin said that they should apologize have they expressed any apology for that be hate behaviors when lynn was the chair has has there been any apology expressed do you do we remember remember having
074that discussion i do mr townsend and i've not received an apology i think we move forward with approving the item that we're asking for approval to put it on the january 26 board meeting agenda between now and then there can be discussion between our charter department in the district and um superintendent byrd and then we'll move forward accordingly yes mr wilson of course um i voted for that uh contract originally simply because it gave us control a certain amount of control over over uh certain aspects of the of the school the administration of the school and i i feel like we would lose that without that contract but in addition to that we we desperately need some help in that part of the county i remember that situation very clearly and i did appeal to
075mr arza i think it was i did appeal to him to apologize i felt like his his approach and comments were were considerably inappropriate and out of line um but that hasn't that hasn't happened it doesn't change the reason that i supported that vote originally so i will be in support of that moving forward as well thank you madam chair thank you mr wilson are there any other further discussion yes miss miller wes can you explain what that mean you're advertising the meeting for exactly what it means is under under florida's law when a charter when the contract is presented to the school board it is required to be presented at a public hearing you're required to have a public hearing for that purpose i typically come to you before a public hearing is advertised
076as a matter of courtesy to obtain authority to for the for the advertisement but the law requires requires them to be to have a public hearing before the board can vote on it thank you i just want to remind my colleagues that we do need help and that in the area of the county we originally talked about but mr ours are so very so very unkindly reminded me that it doesn't the location does not matter and i don't know that they intend to put it in an area that we need help in so you need to be aware of that and we as a board cannot deny an application based on location um and so there needs to be a lot of thought into that process it's it's convenient and i understand now thank you
077wes yes ma'am any other comments um mr townsend uh would remind people also that the person who represents that school ralph arza uh was caught on tape um some years ago uh threatening the black superintendent i believe it peoples of miami-dade county uh making racial epithets i would encourage everybody to play that tape if if they come it's pretty ugly um really i think nobody nobody deserves to be judged by their worst moment um you know and apparently he was drunk and in a bad frame of mind back in that time uh but when you come back years later and you behave in the same kind of bullying way uh toward board members who voted against you uh seems like you haven't learned your lesson much uh i think any parent who sends their kid
078to that school needs to be caveat emptor of who they're dealing dealing with uh the the people who run that school are perfectly comfortable having him represent them um and you know that's that's why i'm gonna be voting no tonight i as i said you know i i certainly certainly won't be able to stop stop stop this i couldn't stop up it a year and a year and a half ago but um i'm not gonna ever vote to uh subject the people of this county to people like that knowingly so i'll be voting no okay just as a reminder this is not a vote on the charter contract once again it is simply a vote tonight to entertain a motion to approve the authority for mr bridges to advertise a public hearing that is all
079we are voting on tonight okay so now i would like to go ahead and call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying i i all those opposed no no the mo how many wait a minute sarah courtney no and who else said no i'm gonna go by district because i didn't hear district one no district two i district three district four i district five all right district six aye district seven no okay so the motion carries um four to three to advertise a public hearing on january the 26 2021 thank you thank you madam chair all right thank you mr bridge appreciate it okay next we're going to have our auditors report which will be given today by mrs matthews good evening good evening in accordance with the school board of
080polk county audit and finance committee charters i'm requesting school board approval of two nominees for the committee to fill vacancies created by term expirations miss terry loretta accountant with bayless and company in lakeland is being nominated by school board member billy townsend ms loretta will bring a unique perspective to the committee as she has been on both sides of the external auditing function and has been both a parent and a classroom teacher of polk county public schools students she has a passion for education and accounting she graduated with honors from the university of central florida with a degree in accounting she began her career as a controller in the manufacturing sector joined explorations 5 children's museum first as a volunteer then as a staff member and taught middle school math at rochelle school of the
081arts for four years before starting her own tutoring business learning time inc ms loretta's four sons attended polk county public schools before earning college degrees miss loretta contributed many volunteer hours throughout the lakeland community over the years at her children's schools her church and lakeland soccer club miss loretta is a lifelong learner who enjoys spending time with her family traveling gardening reading and staying active the second nominee is mr matthew beeman cpa partner with adamson and company cpa firm in winter haven and he's being nominated by school board member lynn wilson mr beeman's career includes experience in public accounting financial reporting for a municipality and working in or consulting with businesses in a variety of industries and professions he holds a bachelor in business administration and master's degree in accounting from the university of central
082florida and a master of business degree from the university of florida mr beeman is a past chair of the polk county chapter of ficpa and a graduate of leadership winter haven class 37. the two nominees three-year terms will commence with your approval thank you miss matthews the chair will now entertain a motion to appoint mr matthew beeman and miss terry loretta for a three-year term on the district's audit and finance committee do i have a motion and a second approval second i have a motion and a second is there any discussion uh mr wilson did you have a few comments this evening well actually i did but i i think miss matthews covered everything um i think mr beamon will be an exceptional addition to the audit committee and um i recommend him um without
083qualification it'll be a great addition thank you thank you mr wilson mr townsend yes sir yeah yeah i just uh thank miss loretta for her her willingness to serve i too have been really excited about her background and what she brings that you know she goes down she's got school school level finance uh in insights um and just uh looking forward to seeing what she can do so thank you okay thank you so much so uh do i have we have a motion and a second now i'd like to call for a vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed like sign motion carries unanimously and congratulations to mr beamon and miss loretta and we look forward to their service on our district's finance and audit committee thank you
084thank you so much madam chairman i have one thing please i am sorry i left off one new administrator yesterday manages the board i like to make sure i get that name in yes ma'am i like to recommend andrew baldwin director of federal programs and grant management to his position as a director and he served in that position so far as acting so we are now pleased to have him officially as a director of federal grants and federal programs thank you and please thank you for allowing me to get that in yes of course and is he here this evening he was earlier was he over he left we wish you our deepest congratulations thank you so much that's right okay um now we come to our part in the meeting where we have our
085board members reports but before we do um i have a special presentation tonight i would like to present to you a plaque that says in grateful appreciation to your years of service outstanding and the devotion to the children and citizens of polk county from 2016 to 2020 20. thank you so much and we wish you all the very best we appreciate you being on the board if you'd like to say a few words i better sit for this um so i was rather make a big speech i was gonna actually play the end of a movie um my favorite movie ratatouille um uh but apparently there are copyright issues with that and they'll cut off our feed and you know then they were all awry so i um there's a scene where you guys have
086seen the the movie where the where the you know it's it's it's about a very creative um uh talented rat and a very egotistical critic uh who is named ego you can guess which one i i am and you know there's a uh a scene at the end that that he says that that is really i think i kind of wanted people to see it but i'll i'll read it it says in many ways the this is the food the food the food critics be speaking his name is anton ego try to try to imagine me doing it doing it in a peter o'toole accent because i'm not going to try but in many ways the work of a critic is easy we risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up
087their work and their selves to our judge judgment we thrive on negative criticism which is fun to write and to read but the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating itself but there are times when recruiting when a critic truly risks something and that is in the discovery and the defense of the new the world is often unkind to new talent new creations the new needs friends um you know i i think a lot of people talked about what we disagreed about as a board but we didn't actually disagree about very much um i think with maybe a couple of exceptions every single person in this room if ron desantis woke up tomorrow and said
088school grades are going going away testing's going away this whole reduction of children to nothing more than numbers to sell is going away the state's going to be a partner not an enemy if he woke up tomorrow and said all of that everybody in this room except maybe two people would stand up and cheer um what we disagreed about is what to do about the reality that we live in uh how passive to be in the face of it how much the idea of finding something new needed friends um i am the kind of person who has always kind of liked to be a friend of of the new [Music] in a lot of ways i'm sad for my kids that had to grow up in this model that has hurt them as as as
089kids what has been enormously beneficial to them is going to school in a community that looks like america that is fully that as as as as diverse as this community community is only public school can provide that um at its best and it's a shame that the way we measure it uh the way the way we try to rank it and to sort it is is how we have to experience learning uh in a for a formal way um you know i i i'm 49 years old or almost i'm 48. um my generation and the generation in front of me the older generation has done a really bad job we've left a very poor country in a very poor world behind behind us and poor i mean not not in terms of wealth in terms
090of uh prospects um we've been irresponsible as as as generations we've sat by and let things happen that we shouldn't have um you know i think there's an element of that particularly in education in florida um and i've worked really really hard in the last four years to try to show people there might be a different way to do it we've been doing things the same way for 25 years now and the same same miseries exist you know i i want to sort of single out miss miss reynolds for just a second she very power powerfully i thought several times wept about what this model of education had done to her what how it had effect affected her how being reduced to a test had affected her um and she was elected with power to
091do something about about it um as was i and you know i think the question we all have to ask ourselves is what are we doing about the things we know are broken what are we doing to you know en enhance the development of our children's human humanity um i know you know having spoken to so many folks here in this organization haven't interacted with so many of them the the the the sacrifice and this the suffering that happens every day to bring a bit of joy or a bit of learning or a bit of an experience to a child when all the power is stacked against it uh the people who do who do that every day have inspired me uh they will continue to inspire inspire me and i will forever be in
092whatever way i can uh a voice for you know a friend of the new a voice for a new way of looking at at the world that is fundamentally developmental um you know finally i i could go down and just sort of uh thank everybody and and express my my appreciation to everybody that would inevitably leave people out it's been a really fascinating experience i uh the engagement with folks you know uh getting fus fus that's been fun getting the fuss back has been fun uh you know there's nothing more important to the future of america into the future of our kids than coming up with a way to collaboratively develop all of our kids i do want to take a moment to thank susan worrington particularly she's a extraordinarily kind and decent per person
093who is well-being i take very very seriously um i appreciate her very very very very very very very much um and i appreciate everybody who works so professionally to to to facilitate the work we're trying to do here um you know and with that uh i'll just say thanks thank you very much mr townsend and next we have this yes i have something i'd like to present oh dear okay on behalf of the board it's my pleasure to present you with this token of our appreciation for your service as board chair over the past year um it's been as we all know an exceptionally difficult year not the least of which has been dealing with covet and um the superintendent's search and you have led us courageously and and exceptionally uh graciously throughout the year
094we just want to thank you for your service thank you mr wilson i appreciate that thank you very very much thank you and next we have board reports miss fortney yes uh i want to personally thank billy uh for his fierce advocacy for our public school staff and students and i really look forward to working with him as a fierce constituent i do want to bring up a couple of things i brought up in the work session about our face-to-face and e-learning model that is driving our workforce out of the business of education i feel like we're dropping like flies i am concerned about the ada approved staff being forced back into brick and mortar even though they are high risk or even low risk just risk our kids that will not have an option
095the second semester if the state has their way that we will lose even more staff and students to florida virtual which will hurt our financial bottom line and i heard urge all my constituents as ms miller likes to call him fortney's army to email bombard the doe the governor york commissioner of education our representatives that may not take the e-learning option away from our staff and students i i believe it's all part of a plan to dismantle public education and i will fight to my death for my uh students and staff that are on the front lines and again thank you billy thank you miss fortney and next we have mrs reynolds thank you madam chair just a couple things to highlight first is i have the opportunity to attend the cfdc annual meeting last
096week where our superintendent miss byrd was given the chairman's award which is their community member of the year for all that she's done in her time at polk county public schools so i just wanted to make sure that the board was informed that she had received it she's probably going to kill me afterwards but she may have been a little bit ambushed and didn't know she was there to receive an award or have to speak she has a really incredible secretary who kept the secret from her and made sure she got out the door in time so thank you to wendy as well for helping with the surprise um secondly um just a reminder that we are in the middle of a superintendent search i'm sure you are all well aware but at our work
097session today we discussed adding another virtual opportunity for input and that will be live next week so watch our facebook page website it will be on all of our media platforms but for anyone who was unable to attend one of our forums there will be a virtual opportunity for that as well in addition the superintendent search survey is open through november 12th so if you have not already filled it out please do so and make sure all of your friends do so and then finally i know this is everyone's favorite time of the year and somebody asked me earlier what does lip sync benefit because apparently i forgot to say it earlier today so the winter haven public education partnership's annual fundraiser is lip celebrity lip sync battle and this year we have a great
098lineup of contestants one of them is our very own steve warner who is the winner haven um district liaison for polk county public schools we also have nick plott with tico who is a great friend to public education karen winningham cypress junctions montessori westin riddle with lakeland magic alex nickdell with cnp agency and allison beeman with cmx who her husband was just appointed to our audit committee so if you are looking to do something fun next thursday night it will be at the chain of lake stadium in winterhaven right there behind the new field house where the indians used to play um the event will start at 5 30. it's 25 for a ticket we have one very stringent judge in miss bird she kind of might be like the simon cowell of american idol
099um but so you'll have to come out and see it yourself i say that as a previous contestant um she's a little bit harsh sometimes um but so that again will be next thursday and i would love to see you all there the show starts at seven there'll be food trucks beforehand so come out and enjoy the fun that concludes my report thank you miss reynolds miss fields uh yes ma'am i have a couple of items um i wanted to uh in honor and in memory of deborah wright who passed away october the 17th this is the front page of her program i don't know if you all can see this or not but i did get a chance to go to the viewing and uh got a chance to talk to her daughters ashley
100and deborah wright both of them are part of of our school system both of them are working diligently trying to make a difference in in the children's lives that we serve each and every day so i wanted to read something that i had placed on my facebook page some of you might have already read it if you have just bear with me but i think that it needs to be read so that we can honor her even though she is no longer with us words can't describe the respect and adoration that i had to miss wright first as a wife a mother a music teacher a principal and a school board member she had many talents always using them to help those most in need she was a no-nonsense kind of person and very straightforward
101which i loved because we were a lot alike in this regard her entire life was centered around helping children and was very much in alignment with our school district's mission students first she had no personal agenda she just tried to make a difference in every child's life i have three children dorian leslie and jazz and she always asked about each of them but she had an unusual funding for my son dorian she remembers some of the challenges that he experienced in elementary and middle school and was always concerned about his welfare and was proud of who he had become as an adult she always said clint would be proud of dorian serving on the school board with her was a great experience her knowledge and expertise helped me to be a better school board member
102she knew her stuff and could relate to any situation she leaves a great legacy in her two amazing daughters ashley wright and deborah l wright hudson and her granddaughter victoria she will be sorely missed rest in heaven mrs wright until we meet at jesus's feet and i wanted to let everyone know that they had acts in lieu of flowers that though that would like to contribute in honor of miss wright could make a donation to the clint wright foundation and if you go to williams funeral home website the information is there and i believe miss uh susan has the information as well and i've already made my contribution and i would encourage those of you that have the ability to do that not just in miss wright's honor but also in her husband dr and
103her late husband honor dr wright and all of those dollars i believe you go back to florida memorial university to help with scholarship bonds so i just wanted to to do that in honor of her i also wanted to thank the schools that were represented today as it relates to the united way campaign i know that many of you all know the struggles that a lot of non-profits have had because of the pandemic and a lot of individuals have had as uh as it was referenced in the presentation it's a sacrifice to make a contribution to united way but the money is well spent and is utilized to make our community better because of the pandemic they didn't mention that today but the united way had to stop its campaign uh and it did not
104complete it and so a lot of the agencies had a reduction in their allocation and so the services have been decreased but the need is great so if if those listening would consider uh thank you thank you thanks to those who who are giving to united way thank you so much for making the sacrifice and if you can make a sacrifice if you're not currently given to united way they'll be greatly appreciated as well and then i was also told that uh mr alex wheeler he's a past school board member passed away today as well so i wanted to uh just to just uh honor him i did not work with him but i heard that um he passed away today so we're going to be lifting him up in prayer as well and i
105believe that's all that i have thank you thank you miss fields mr wilson thank you madam chair um i think i want to take an opportunity to kind of piggyback on some things mr townsend said it's very frustrating and difficult and challenging for me every night when i watch the news and i see the things that are happening in our country today is something i think we all should be concerned about and i believe that that the answer to those problems is through education we talk about wealth and equality and capital inequality and income inequality those are all things that are solved through education and frankly in our society right now we're just not doing a very good job of that i read some not long ago there's 16 000 we that the state of
106florida imports 16 000 welders machinists and mechanics every year from other states and out of the country because we're not training our students to do those jobs it's a stunning number when you think about it and i you know i i'm absolutely convinced that whether it's at the federal level or state level everyone is is trying to do the right thing the intentions are good but we can't get there until we start talking and we can get there until we start having discussions and we can't get there until we start collaborating and most importantly we can't get there until we start listening we can't get there as a state until our state officials come down here and listen to to our teachers and and the folks that are at the grassroots level and and listen
107to the challenges they face every single day you know routinely like my other colleagues on the board i get phone calls and in the first thing i always do when i get one of those calls is i remind myself to listen there's nothing more important than that you just have to be willing to listen to get together have the discussions have the conversations and to listen but if we're going to move forward as a country in a meaningful way we have to do that through education it's going to start with a collaboration between local school boards in the state of florida and local school boards and and and the federal government so that's been on my mind and um you know with mr townsend offered his comments i guess that just uh brought it to
108the forefront for me and and i i felt compelled to offer those comments as well so thank you madam chair thank you mr wilson miss miller thank you madam chair um i have a few things i want to start with um and this wasn't planned but i do want to make a couple of comments concerning charter corporate charter including bridge prep no matter what they print on a postcard i am very much pro-choice and i've been a proponent of victory ridge and achievement academy in our montessori schools and local charters here my son is on the gardner scholarship and i paid the tuition of a private school for my daughter so i understand school choice what i do require is professionalism and respect um if the new mantra is how polite we're going to be
109i'm going to expect that from people that come before this board i was not given the respect for mr arson that charter school does not mean that i don't understand the rules of the doe i do understand that but tonight meant pretty much nothing because it doesn't matter they're still going to we're still going to have that meeting i also know that it doesn't matter really what the board votes with because they can take it to the state and have these schools passed anyway that has a lot to do with legislation that has nothing to do with what i can control as a school board member i can't control that schools add children with disabilities i cannot control that schools have a reflective student body with minority and socioeconomic concerns i can control what i
110do so when i have people come before the board i i expect them to be professional and have respect as a board and as board members and so i i hope that mr arza and bridge prep comes back and wants to work as a partnership and have that kind of professionalism i understand the limitations of a local school board i understand the limitations provided and the opportunities provided through the department of education i am very much for those schools offering opportunities but i will you know i will be asking questions i will ask um about their local control i will ask about what their student body looks at i will ask where their location will be even though really as a board we have no control over location um and so i just want to
111make that clear this is not an anti-choice sentiment that you get from district seven i i held people accountable and i and i require them to come and and meet with me in professionalism and respect that i provide so that i just wanted to set that out i do want to recognize my colleague that's leaving the board i know that he's probably still going to be very active in life and i do he definitely doesn't mention his parents often but i do want to give credit to his parents especially his mother i have never met somebody with a sense of self like my colleague and with the sense of self-esteem no matter what is said or what is done he you know he is he just keeps going and i and i do credit his
112mother for that i know she's not in good health but i think that is the person that that he owes a lot to um for giving him that um so i appreciate what you've done here and i'm sure you'll still be active in telling me what i'm doing wrong when i'm making decisions okay um but more importantly i want to talk about mrs wright this evening many of you know that i was around a long time and i've tried to keep in touch with our board members and i knew mrs wright very personally and we'd laugh because especially recently people would ask her how long how do you know lisa miller how long how long have you known her and people would ask me that and our answer is always a real long time because
113we couldn't put it together i was a teacher a long time ago and knew her then i was on the campaign trail i'm in 2014 if you remember those campaigns long ago and i can tell you that was a lady of faith that was a lady that if she told you she was praying for you she went home that night and she prayed for you i can tell you she said on this board and there was a lot of criticism sometimes because she asked a lot of questions um she expected a lot from her staff and from the board members and i and i looked up to her for that what her and her husband did here in this county and what her daughters are currently involved in with our education will never be matched
114the legacy that their rights leave in this county for the people they have touched not only adults but students i think is something you only can wish to attain so i think that it's i'm glad that we've honored her with the donations to the clint wright foundation but i just want to say that she will be missed and her legacy will live a long time beyond just her and her and her husband and her daughters but that's all thank you madam chair thank you miss miller okay i have a few items as well tonight and i promise to be as brief as possible i did want to update everyone on the superintendent search i feel that it's been progressing nicely we have contracted as most of you know with the florida school boards association to
115help us conduct the search for our next superintendent of schools i'm excited to announce again that we had community forums in person forums six of them held last week across the county as well as a zoom form for our students that went very well our online surveys are ongoing and they will continue up through november the 12th and the link of course is on our website and for those that were not able to attend the in-person forums and wanted to have an opportunity to voice your interest as far as the qualifications that you'd like to see in our new superintendent dr vogel with the florida school boards association announced today that we will be having virtual community forums the week of november 2nd through the 6th once again virtual community forums for the superintendent search
116qualifications will be held november 2nd through the 6th miss pleasant our marketing guru for lack of a better term has done an exceptional job and getting out the message about all these different opportunities for community input and i know that they will be working diligently to get those dates out there for everyone but please check back to our website once again november 2nd through the 6th we will have virtual community forums for everyone to give input if you've not already had the opportunity to do so next i wanted to announce to the board our annual planning retreat obviously we should have probably had one in this fall but due to covid and everything else going on superintendent byrd and i have been discussing the annual retreat and we're looking at having it sometime in the
117spring of 2021. and as soon as we move a little bit farther along um we will give you an actual date but just to let you know we've been talking about that and hopefully we'll have something on your calendar after the first of the year next i wanted to let you know i think i mentioned it back in january it's been almost a year that i was working with polk vision and kim long to host a joint meeting of the school board along with the board of county commissioners and the polk county legislative delegation and so it was supposed to be held september of 2020 but i think everybody knows what kind of happened in september of 2020 so due to that i've been reaching out to ms long and we're looking at trying to
118coordinate that joint meeting of all three bodies if you will the school board the board of county commissioners and our legislative delegation sometime january february prior to session beginning in march so i just kind of wanted to let the board know that as we move forward hopefully we can put some actual dates on that for everyone i also wanted to thank the board members our staff so dedicated um who've been attending all these meetings who help us to prepare who set the video the audio everybody you know you walk in and everything's done somebody has to do that and we have incredible folks that come every time we meet here and i'm so appreciative and i just want to say thank you so much because it's been quite the wild ride with kovid and everything
119else that we've had to deal with and our staff has been outstanding and board members thank you for your support and being here for those of you that have been able to come in person i really appreciate it and i did want to announce that beginning november 1st all work session and board meetings will be live and will continue to be held here at the jim miles center through the end of the year december 31st 2012 people move it's been an incredible incredible year for everybody and i just want to say thank you i also wanted to say that i learned this morning that mr alex wheeler who was a school board member for about 10 months in 1998 passed away this morning mr wheeler was appointed by governor chiles on january 14 of 1998
120and he served about 10 months through the election in november of 1998. he was defeated by larry peacock who then went on to become a school board member so i would simply ask you to keep his wife mandy and their family in your prayers it's a very difficult time as you might imagine he went in for a very simple surgery and he passed away this morning so your thoughts and prayers tonight would be so much appreciated for his wife mandy and their family and i think the family has requested that folks don't reach out to give them kind of a little bit of time to try to get their arms around what has just occurred in their family so your your patience is very much appreciated this time okay the next item on our agenda
121is public comments addressing items that are not on the agenda tonight so i have several people that signed up i will begin with danielle zere hope i pronounced it right danielle z-i-e-r are you here this evening if so please come forward to address the board okay next i have lisa burke would you like to come forward welcome miss burke congratulations yes hopefully you can tell everyone who you are when you address us here okay my name is lisa burke lake wells florida i am the new president of askme2227. i get to represent some amazing people but it takes all of us to make the school board district and system work i just wanted to let you know and remind you that support staff most of them are the ones that are hidden that are all
122behind the scenes that we don't get to see those are the ones that go unnoticed and if they take care of everything that we take for granted take care of the plumbing the pain and maintenance everything like that and for the ones that are seen they feed the kids they feed their minds their bodies they start their day and they finish their day so i just wanted to remind you to keep them in mind as we go forward into business budgets and everything else because a lot of them they don't make a livable wage they need help and also as we go further in business the superintendent search as you mentioned a lot of dedicated and loyal employees they showed up to put in and put in i've got to be honored with that too
123um but as uh this is my first uh what do you want to call it we're meeting over accession as the president of local and i have some pretty really big shoes to fill so it's my job to represent fight and work hard for all those employees who want better pay benefits and i just want to make their lives better and i will be here for them and i look forward to working with you guys and thank you for your time tonight thank you miss burke and we're very excited um that you've assumed that new position with askme and we look forward as a board to working together with you to accomplish goals as we move forward so thank you for your service ahead of time yes it does ma'am thank you so much um
124anyone else want to address the board i have one more card um bishop mincy is there someone else everyone else has spoken i believe previously is there anyone else the district is currently on an impasse with the union we must now wait until december in hopes that our union's plan prevails and that over ninety percent of us will see a two percent race this race comes at a crucial time for many families because of the coronavirus pandemic but instead of handling this issue and accepting the proposal the district is arguing for almost non-existent raises for most of its teachers and staff i wonder what it would be like to be paid for the work that i do i wonder what it would be like to have a massive salary just so i could dedicate delegate
125my work to someone else i wonder what it would be like to not have to worry about saving in order to go to the doctor's office as previously stated the financial officer for the district is worried about the state cutting education budgets however i see plenty of spaces in the district office particularly in absurd and seemingly made up positions of power that haven't done anything to support teachers and students instead of potentially cutting jobs why not just pay any employee making more than teachers only what we make teachers are unable to delegate their workload to others and they usually do more than what's in their job descriptions as well as working overtime if the district individuals think they deserve more please come and teach our classes during blended learning or covet in general to prove
126why we shouldn't get what you get in addition to the salary issue i'd like to suggest that dual enrollment teachers see in a stipend while it's true that any teacher with a master's degree can get a stipend which could take them over seven years to pay back with the said supplement dual enrollment teachers are working for two groups both the school board and the college that's affiliated with with the school they're working for they're required to do more rigorous grading and give more specific feedback along with spending time ensuring their records for both tools are impeccable because they cannot waver from the content they are required to teach these teachers do not get anything additional for students who succeed in their class unlike ace ib and ap that offer bonus money per student who pass
127an exam and those teachers are not required to have graduate degrees usually only a summer institute certification why isn't there a stipend for dual enrollment teachers the school board and district constantly want teachers to improve ourselves on our own money and time but don't show appreciation for for professional growth of their employees if you're not willing to give us a supplement then perhaps mandate dual enrollment teachers be offered an additional planning period or since dual enrollment teachers usually have to work additional months over the summer to build curricula pay us as 11 or 12 month employees it's time to step up and do what's right by your teachers give us salaries we deserve while cutting unnecessary positions or ridiculous salaries for district officials and give us an incentive to improve ourselves professionally thank you thank
128you anyone else i won't take the whole three minutes and i could rattle off more facts and figures um we can talk later about those i got days worth of facts and figures um but this comment tonight is for billy and i'm gonna try not to cry because you have been an inspiration to me and to the people that i represent you have fought the good fight and i know you will continue to fight the good fight with us alongside of us i'm sad to see you leave that seat but i know that moving forward your speaking truth to power is just going to increase without maybe the restrictions that the seat provides um your fierce advocacy i couldn't have said it better than miss forney um your fierce advocacy for our students for the
129teachers and the staff that serve those kids on the front lines every day is a sight to behold and i am so glad that i've been able to work alongside of you um continue to fight um because we need it and and we need people we need more people that have backbones to stand up and speak truth to power and you've done that and you've transformed this board and i appreciate you thank you ms yocum anyone else bishop mincy if you'd like to come forward i started my job in 19 i was 9 years old i started preaching and have not always been compensated for preaching at least i told you i was on my job then the other night you were at every one of these things i asked if he was on contract
130because she asked me was i was i hired for this by the school board yes i'm hired but i won't get a check that don't matter that's that's immaterial right now because we are in a pandemic in a serious time more than we ever look at everybody is looking for how we're going to get out if all of us had the answers we would not be coming to these type sessions and my heart goes out as i've said this so many times to all of these people that work hard and don't look like get compensated properly but the reward the reward is not just so much all the time the monetary thing is it's when you can look back over your life and you can see that somebody that you touched while you were passing
131along the way i heard you said at least about this right and there's others and i won't even call names tonight because i i don't want to offend nobody by the names i call because you might think who i like you may not like that that don't matter either but what i'm saying is this uh my heart goes out and i think about all of these people that are hurting our nation is in such a disarray and it is so sad to see we're in a presidential election and we don't know what's going to be the outcome we don't know nothing but one thing we do know is that the man that created us all he has every one of us in his hands and he is able to take care of every one of
132us because he know the hairs that are numbered on your head you know every one of them so since he know everything there is to know about us we have to be people that are encouraged to stay in the fight in the easy fight you got to be encouraged to keep on doing what you do because one day there will come a reward but the reward may not come when you want it to come but a reward will come so i i encourage you to let's stick it out let's dig it out let's do what we got to do to try and and let me tell you this tonight what i'm going to sit down we know where we've been but we don't know where we're going now you can get that in your mind
133because what we had we're fixing to lose so i don't know what we're gonna get what we're looking for so all you can do is hope and pray that whoever is selected by the board members will be the person that can take us thank you bishop mensing appreciate those words okay um our next order of business board members is adjournment there being no further business of the polk county school board this meeting is now adjourned you