good evening at this time if you would stand for the Pledge of Allegiance a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated so we want to welcome you to our February 6 uh school board meeting of ela County Public Schools and this is Black History Month and so we got excited long agenda but excited meeting tonight where we will be recognizing our students an
d taking care of the business of ela County Public Schools at this time in honor starting off in honor of Black History Month we will have Miss Justice Alexander who is the student body president at Eastside High School to come before us with a performance let's give her a hand as she [Applause] comes will stood [Music] and [Music] [Music] together we are going to a brand new across the river can youed call call me to [Music] answer I can feel it in my early in the morning before the sun begins
to shine we're going to start moving towards that separ waiting through you know I got a made up mind I don't mind if I lose any blood on the way to Salvation and with the strength that I've got until I die so I'm going to stand up take my people with me together we are going to a brand new home far across the river can you hear Freedom calling calling me to answer going to keep on keeping on I can feel it in my all right now you see look at great talent that we have here in ela County Public Sc
hools thank you Miss Alexander for that at this time tonight uh doing something a little bit different but we've invited all of our for fall Sports to come tonight so miss pigot if come forth and we will recognize all of the student athletes and so with your pom poms let's give it up pom pom pomp it up pop that pop that Spirit up huh huh strappy okay Mr strappy come on fing my agenda good evening evening this is a wonderful time for me because I was a former athlete so to board uh chair McGraw e
steemed board members superintendent Andrew these students that we are going to be recognizing and honoring tonight have done their due diligence and balancing the wonderful accomplishments and accolades of Performing as an athlete but also the due diligence of staying eligible academically in the classroom so with that being said we're going to start up with Eastside High School football Regional semifinals losing to the eventual State runnerup Bradford swimming boys and girls reach state with
the boys taking second place coach Allen is to Florida dairy farms to a boy swimming coach of the year that's right coach Allen state champion [Applause] state championship to the boys 200 medal relay of Eric gong Abraham B gulov Chris Jong and Liam Elman east side track results from 2023 were the male team were the district Champions uh 2022 and 2023 the female team were District Runner UPS 2022 and 2023 the male team were with the region runner-ups 2023 and the male team was the 2022 third pla
ce in the region the male team FHSAA state championship they were placed eighth overall tonight I think we have definitely coach Hoskins Who will be in attendance with two of his athletes and I think coach Byron Hickman will also be in attendance representing Eastside High School please put your hands together for these two coaches [Applause] [Applause] W and we would like to capture a picture of all of our teams that are here if we can get a picture as they come up and each one with the board a
ll [Applause] right thank you coaches and thank you principal Williams next we have Gainesville High School the girls C country team was coached by coach Curtis Cooper qualified and ran in the state meet the boys cross country is also coached by Curtis Cooper which one boy qualified and ran in the state meet volleyball coach chony Vice were the district Champions and Advan to the Sweet 16 swim and dive team was coached by Leonard cross several boys and girls advaned to the state with Ava Fuller
winning a state championship as an individual in attendance for J Jess Cross Country Coach Curtis Cooper athlete Sam Willer and Mia Forbes will represent Gainesville High School please put your hands [Applause] together up to the front did you want to say did you want to say anything coach on behalf of your wonderful athletes no did a great job okay thank you thank you for being here yes thank thank you thank you principal Ferguson and I see Dr Becker over there on the side next up is hawor migh
ty Hornets I guess we will just simply reintroduce this wonderful Bunch football state championship up under the lead of head coach my man 20 grand Cornelius Ingram smalltown allamerican team Andrew Zach was his outstanding linebacker Gainesville son Defensive Player of the Year First Team all state First Team all area also Andrew Zach one R Coach of the Year Cornelius Ingram Florida Dairy Farmers class one R player of the year in football CJ Ingram himself the young man and attendance with Hear
th on is coach conelius Ingram and his football players please coach Ingram if you would like to come to the mic please do if not go ahead and take your picture sir coach Ingram got something to [Applause] say I actually should like to talk everyone so bear with me um this is this is truly an honor um um you know just having a opportunity to coach young men and young women in my hometown uh get to do it my way with with great support system um from fan base Administration um every everyone plays
a part in our success um and it's been truly amazing and I think uh last Saturday Miss Miss McGraw end up coming by I see principal green here and um they show they showed a documentary of myself where a 15-year-old kid uh from Hawthorne put one amazing piece together and you talk about something that looks like it needs to be on Netflix yeah yeah that's it it's it's it's it's that awesome um but but in in in the documentary right we just touch on things that our town and Community went through
um some personal experiences from myself that that a lot of my kids and a lot of you in this room probably see me go through as far as injuries or what have you but being able to to overcome it being able to to persevere through through all of it and I love my job I get to do something wonderful every single day I step foot on campus and that's why we're having success I have great young men I have great support system um as far as their parents who also push them from home uh other assistant c
oaches because I'm truly not doing this alone I have some amazing assistant coaches but but these young men and young women uh they take the coaching every single day and it's outside of ball as well so uh we're doing a lot I'm extremely proud of of the bunch that I have here tonight some of the other guys couldn't make it but thank you guys for having us and hopefully we'll be back next year as well all right come on fellas take your picture in the [Applause] Gap thank you so much coach Ingram
next up we have Newberry High School in the absence of Mr Shepard I would like to mention that the volleyball team made it to the final four the football lost in the regional semi finals to none other than the East mes West haon Hornets in attendance for Newberry we have athletic director rry who will be representing the Newberry football team tonight David Smith will be coming as one of our players and um we had uh [Music] nope sorry about that our also in attendance is our volleyball team they
'll be represented by our head coach Hank ran and assistant coach lily bence as well all as as players Haley Thorp and Hannah Templeton if any of you uh athletic director Round Tree or coach would like to come to the microphone first please do at this time don't be shy okay [Applause] well the one thing coach Ingram and I here in common is we both are Florida graduates and also played football there but I was back in the orange days so that's a long time ago but I tell you what um it's just been
an awesome Journey coaching at Newberry High School especially coaching these young athletes these girls that are you know and always tell them there's girls there's boys and there's athletes and they want to be treated as athletes and we had two great stories this year in our run to the final four one was there was a meeting going on at newb high school and uh about called him Coach Andrew but he was a coach at one time but uh Shane and I go back to when we were 10 years old playing boys club
together so I've known Shane a long time well all of a sudden he's standing around behind us watching the game and you know in volleyball when you're done with the set you know I got to get my lineup ready well next thing you know coach comes out the coach Shane comes out gets in the Huddle I don't know what he told him but uh he got him fired up and I know what he told him afterward he told me he said girls y'all need to go beat them to they only can get 15 well the final score was 2515 I said
I need you at every match from now on uh but just you know the and the other respect that these young ladies got this year is we run stadiums all the time that's part of our Mo we uh we work hard in the offseason during the season we're still in our stadiums we're leading up to the final four it's Stadium day the football team was out there practicing and all of a sudden they all stopped and they just started clapping and giving us a round of applause and I thought that was awesome that was awes
ome so that's a lot of respect there and uh and I'm getting older but I still love what I'm doing and just coaching these young ladies doing what we've done in Newberry the last 10 years and I started my career as a football coach at Trenton High School back in 1990 something like that and uh actually I think Shane was at Hawthorne back then in 9192 and all that so we we had our runin of coaches but uh I appreciate you guys doing this recognizing these young student athletes and one great thing
about the volleyball girls at Newberry High School and I think you guys up there are going to be proud of this the last two valot victorians are from our volleyball team and I'll leave it at that if you if you know my principal Mr shephard I got to bring up uh academics uh uh real quick uh because he's Athletics guy but academics he want to make sure I brde on Newberry High School uh the number one graduation rate in the county um our student athletes they are tremendous athletes they're tremend
ous students but they're better people at Newberry and and and I can't say enough about our student athletes our parents our Administration our coaches so uh we really are uh uh blessed uh at new bearing our community and I just want to to talk about that and uh Mr shepher wanted me to mention um academics also in Newberry High School so that's what I [Applause] did all [Applause] right alrighty so from Newber we here backing town to the mighty Bobcats bus High School the football team made it t
o the final four AB the head coach Chuck Bale the girls cross country team are state champions up under head coach Mike Maron boys cross country State finalist head coach Patrick Duma Runners Riley Smith won an individual State title boys golf regionals head coach Ryan McNichol and girls golf regionals head coach Mark elard in attendance tonight is coach Chuck Bale from the football team and Coach Thomas Maron from the girls cross country team please come up to the microphone and please address
the wonderful Das with the wonderful accolades of buos thank you very much for having us tonight uh extremely special I know that speaking with Coach Whitmore who was our head coach for over the last decade um this is the first time that this something like this has been done for for all fall Sports so um the board's commitment and Dr Andrew your commitment to to our to our Sports and our Athletics and elro county has uh has been amazing um you know my father was a a elro County uh elro County S
chools employee for over two decades um I'm born and raised in elro County grew up through elro County Schools graduated from bu Holtz um nothing brings me more Pride than getting to continue to put the spotlight on elal County Schools um the way that I'm able to do that is through Athletics and every day in the classroom thank you guys so much for your support of elasro County Athletics Madam chair uh Eric Drummond I'm volunteer assistant coach for the girls cross country team I wanted to add o
ne thing on behalf of Coach Marin I wanted to thank you board members if you guys remember several years ago I spent quite a lot of time in here talking to you guys about athletic facilities at buholtz High School in the track and the resurfacing of the track and The Bravery that you guys showed and being able to support that project allows us to be able to have teams like this so I just wanted to thank you again for that and uh just we we appreciate everything that you do for us and just your c
ontinued support for athletic facilities districtwide I know a lot of people in this room support that so thank you all for that thank [Applause] you all right thank you coming tonight two all right [Applause] hey [Applause] right and to wrap up the evening none other than our wonderful Raiders of Santa Fe High School yeah Daniel lawyer is the Santa Fe uh boys golf coach and uh Zachary Williams will be attending also with him uh coach if you have any words please come up to the microphone and I
also wanted to let you know that Zachary qualified for the regional tournament for the boys golf team so congratulates congratulations to [Applause] Zachary since I'm last I'm going to keep this very short uh thank you for having us here uh it's been a pleasure to coach Santa Fe boys Golf and Zachary just extremely self-motivated really don't have to do much other than show up and these guys put in the work thankful for my athletic director coach Faulk who has been extremely supportive and then
I'm a member of food service and I'm thankful for them for really working with my schedule during the fall so that's all I got to say thank you very much all right thank you all right on behalf of on of uh alot County School Board Athletics proportion of my job I want to thank you all because it means so much when these young individuals get to be honored and recognized for their due diligence representing their schools so thank you for this opportunity thank you all right let's give it up for o
ur students woohoo Mr Andrew did you want to have a word to the students sit out the athletes so I'd just like to congratulate all of our schools uh I've been touched by all of them so I started as a freshman coach at ghs so go kanes I was um I graduated bolz right go cats I worked at maain so go Red Raiders because we fed right up in there um I've been out to Newberry work there go Panthers um I worked at East Side for a little bit go Rams and I spent 16 years in Hawthorns to go Hornets you kno
w and uh I was athletic director there and and um it's just cool to see all the work going on with our students with so many students that I worked with and it has nothing to do with me but it's what I say when I'm talking about I is all of these communities are part of my Fabric and I so grateful and so blessed that have been touched in so many different ways by each Community here within alacha County and that's the little L to the biggest communities cuz when we were at Hawthorne coach I had
coach as a student out there uh the kids came down from Waldo so it's every municipality everybody and I walked out a better man than I went into each one of these communities because they taught me so much and helped me develop as a person and an educator and all those things so to see what we're still doing and what we've been doing for decades back into the 70s and 80 LS you know uh with some of the old coaches Jesse herd and coach nblack and all those gentlemen forward there's some rich trad
ition here um in alacha county and so it just shows that our students our athletes and their students and better yet as uh coach Round Tree said and as as um all of the coaches in here that I know and have worked with they alluded to it's the student first in the development of them as a person and then all these other things come with it but first it's it's taken care of them as as uh Future Leaders wherever they land and so to the coaching staffs to the families and and to the students you pou
r a lot of time into this you make a lot of sacrifices you sometimes can't go do things with your social peers because you're in it to win it for each other not for yourself and so hats off to everybody body and and just thank you we're proud of you Dr rockt years and years ago I was a student athlete I swam and played water polo and I heard the wonderful accomplishments of Eastside swimming team so go Rams but I wanted to say that I know how much dedication and discipline and time it takes to b
e a successful student and athlete at the same time I know how much time your coaches your parents dedicate to this and so I want to offer my appreciation and thanks to our student athletes their coaches their families and especially our volunteer coaches from the community who do this without getting paid so thank you all for supporting our student athletes um Miss seron thank you madam chair and to all of our athletes to reiterate um what Dr Rockwell just said um I concur with that I want to j
ust add as I always say when we bring the sports teams here that have won some people play their entire sporting career from Little League in the middle school now sports high school sports college and some that are fortunate enough to play professionally and they never play for us Championship so as I encourag you guys last year as yall when we came out to high and you won your first championship to to this is a special moment you'll never forget you'll share this bond with your with your peers
until you die but it is really special when it all comes together all the hard work and practice and discipline and it comes culminates into a championship so I just encourage you all to savor it sometimes you can get so used to winning that you don't appreciate it you know so I never won a state championship as a high schooler but all of my teams that I played on from when I played wck softball and basketball we always won always won and when I got to high school we won more games than we lost
never won a championship but I experienced that high school basketball championship with my son and it is it's a feeling that's undescribable and so you get you can get so used to winning that you kind of forget all the preparation and everything that went to us so I want to congratulate you all congratulations coach I admire the work you're doing out there I appreciate the work you do cuz I know it's a thankless job we don't you're enough that supplement I saw I saw it in the book you know I r
ead it it's it's not it's not enough for all the coaches thank you all for what you do and for for pointing to our young people because they are our future and these are the people that we're developing that will lead us so thank you and congratulations to each of the teams and all that you all did I mean I had to brag on hathon they gave me a shirt to wear at our state association meeting um this past November and I was undefeated on the cornhole boat right everybody still take they telling me
right now they got dibs on me when we come back in June and I'm like okay so I'm bringing my hathor shirt back and bu hold I was kind of bragging on y'all I didn't have a shirt but you know the guy he told me when I saw him in Tallahassee um a few weeks ago um what was that you said about bu holdes I said next year next year next year but I appreciate you guys and congratulations again to each of you all all right one more time let's give it up for all our athletes woohoo yes again thank you all
for coming and uh so excited but at this time our uh agenda calls for a public hearing at 6:30 so we have to pause just for a minute Mr shellnut before I come to you proposed amendments to adoption and repeal of various policies and that would be Miss seagull thank you madam chair um the board held a workshop on December 6th 2023 and a first reading on January 16th 202 4 to discuss consider and receive input and amendments for adop amendments to adoption of and repeal of certain various policie
s the proposed amendments adoption and repeal conform to legislative changes staff me recommendations and eliminate redundant and obsolete language the attached statements uh of purpose effect set forth the reasons for each policy listed and those changes are reflected in the attached policies in addition to the first reading certain policies 2423 5513 7421 92000 and 98.04 were presented to the board as the policies which had changes since the workshop and these changes were uh shown highlighted
and yellow on the policies in addition approximately 14 additional policies had changes made to those policies that are highlighted um it is recommended this is the opportunity for the public to present testimony on the issue it's requested that the speakers keep their comments to approximately three minutes Madam chair all right thank you you've heard uh from Miss seagull uh Dr McNeely I'm sorry your light is on Madam chair that has nothing to do with the public hearing and I wanted to say som
ething to the students they left M oh I'm so still say it when we go back to regular meeting I'm so sorry I apologize thank you all right so this is the second reading this is a public hearing ma'am okay public any public comment any public comment have none any phone so we don't hear any okay all right thank you Mr shellnut ready for you oh I'm sorry Dr McNeely I'm so sorry if you want to say something right quick yes ma'am I'm sorry madam chair it's not quick but I wanted to say and it will be
on tape congratulations to all of our exceptional athletes um proud of every single school and I was back in the day in the era so you can figure out my age um when my dad owned the baseball team of the Orlando Sentinel All Stars in Orlando I grew up watching Roy capella and Jackie Robinson and I could go on and on with other athletes that played before integration happened and they would come to Orlando so I grew up on a baseball field loved the sports and I am certainly a competitor so I unde
rstand all of the things that students have to go through in order to compete congratulations again thank you thank you Dr mnav uh Mr shut assistant principal of the Year recognition chair mcra members of the board superintendent Andrew uh thank you for this opportunity to briefly present tonight we've had a lot of wonderful um accolades and it's wonderful to continue that uh board members as you remember at previous board meeting we were able to recognize alacha County's principal of the year w
ho is actually still here we recognized him but I want again quickly recognize Mr Leroy Williams who's here supporting the ram yeah and we were not able to recognize the assistant principal because she was working uh which is exactly what happens to most of our assistant principles when they're working uh very long hours uh serving the needs of our students uh but I'd like to just quickly remind the community to me what's really special about these Awards is they're really selected by the admini
strators so the assistant principles had the opportunity to to nominate their peers and people had the opportunity to choose participate and the assistant principles were the ones who voted for this W winner and I can uh both uh personally and professionally attest that she is an outstanding administrator and does wonderful things for our students so Madam chair if I can I'd like to briefly uh read a a short bio and then upon completion of that we'll invite oura County assistant principal of the
year to come to the podium if she'd like to make a few comments and then of course pose for a brief picture Dr mallerie Becker has been part of the lch County public schools for the past 15 years she earned a Bachelor of Science and psychology and a master in education from the University of Florida she re relocated to California to start her uh teaching career in family while teaching in Los Angeles she earned a master of Social Work she spent the next 12 years pursuing a career in education s
he was a teacher Dean and principal before moving back to Florida she returned to Florida with her family and returned to the University of Florida where she next earned her PhD in education with a minor in educational leadership she's been working in lri County since uh both as a teacher and administrator she served as assistant principal curriculum Lincoln Middle School principal of elal e school and most recently assistant principal of curriculum at Gainesville High School she's happy to call
Gainesville her home with her husband and two children her son is a senior at gainville high school and her daughter is at the University of Florida she's invested in working with students and parents from all over the district to help them be successful and is eager for the opportunity to help gaino High School in elat County as a whole continue to grow and Thrive uh if we would please let's uh welcome to the podium and give a big round of applause elra County's assistant principal of the Year
Dr mallerie [Applause] Becker good evening everyone I just wanted to um say thank you to my colleagues for their support and that I look forward to working with the district and working to help our students be successful every single day thank you thank you thank you Mr Beck take a picture come on Mr Ferguson this is your assistant please come with her thank you thank you congratulations again all right ACA uh updates Miss W chair mcra board members student Representatives superintendent Andrew
and District staff I'm Dr tessman from accea and we are thankful to be here the first board meeting of Black History Month we're excited about the newly ratified collective bargaining language and the recent 3.5% raise congratulations to all of the esps of the year for their uh for their work sites and we look forward to celebrating with you in the near future we are increasing our site visits um so I will be in the meaf lounge tomorrow and Betsy rer from FAA will be at the lounge at Westwood M
iddle School tomorrow with some pizza and we will be available to members um and potential members um all throughout legislative session the Florida Education Association and the AFL CIO are lobbying in Tallahassee uh last week there was um an even bigger group of us there and we were advocating for more flexibility in how um the districts can distribute funding for salaries for employees so we're hopeful that they hurt us um I will close my portion uh with a little data uh as food for thought t
onight there are 38 ESP resignations on the Personnel report of those 38 resignations only four of them were ACA members while not a causational relationship I would bet there is a correlation in that employees who have the extra support and feel the strength of their Union um they want to stay so if you want to retain your employees have them join the union um finally Our accea member numbers are continue to climb our ESP percentage is 45% and our instructional percentage is 64.5% good evening
board um chair mcra board members and superintendent Andrew I'm Carmen Ward I'm the president of ACA and I am very happy to be participating with the district in the strategic planning we are very happy to be involved in the yearr round school planning because we have many concerns and from our members and from our employees and um but we are very happy that we continue to collaborate and continue to accomplish um great things together and I do want to say that one of the most amazing events of
the Year for me is the teacher of the year ceremony which happened January 25th and I just want to acknowledge that very special Union member dwet Smith representing meta Elementary that was the District teacher of the year and so um we also have pride that that most of the teacher of the year candidates representing their schools are also union members 78% were union members so that is very um telling that there is a lot of of enthusiasm for people to have a voice I am amazed at the athletes th
at we here tonight and what an excellent amount of Educators we have in this District I mean if we look around this boardroom and look at this artwork this artwork from Hidden Oak child's and Meadow Brook is beautiful and we are all committed to Student Success and in order for that to happen the Educators have to be successful and so we will continue um to work together but um all pretty much good news happy black history month thank you thank you thank you all for the update at this time again
so excited our children we finally got our student reps back in the fold and so at this time we'll have our student reps intros uh by East Side High School principal Mr leeo Williams and Then followed by Mr John Green good evening Madam chair superintendent Andrew board members I would like to introduce a fine young man his name is jabel Baku he's a senior at Eastside High School Jael is passionate about equity and education and serves on the student Alo County Public School student organizatio
n Amplified he is also a musician who participated in the lwa County Youth Orchestra the east side marching Ram ban and several other groups per Performing locally and Beyond jabel is interested in a career in peace building and policymaking at the domestic and international levels and is thrilled for this opportunity to begin his journey in policy work however I would also like to mention this young man is a leader um he he leads his students daily his peers um he always advocates for others an
d he very selfless and he's just a fine young man and the sky the limit he's going to be very successful in life all right let's give it up for him [Applause] yeah stand up and so they can see who you are wave thank you and he said he's not shy we told we want our student reps we want to hear from them because that is why we're here every day because of our students and so we wanted our rep so that they can make sure they share uh in this process to their success as well thank you Mr Green Madam
shair fellow board members superintendent Andrew I'm here to represent our present to you my apologies Mr torren Myers who is a senior at Hawthorne Middle High School he's an athlete who likes to compete and he was a member of the 2022 and 2023 back-to-back state champion football team where he plays a position of Center torren is a member of Lakeside Baptist Church where he was influential in the development of their children's church uh initiative and program in his spare time torren likes jo
gging outdoors and gaming I'm most impressed by Torrance uh his selflessness and his uh determination I know centers usually don't get the fame that you know the quarterback or the ride receivers get but I can tell you he was injured in the state semi-final game he played through that he was um in the following week of course in the state championship game he was was injured but he gritted it out uh which really speaks to his character and testament uh but off the football field I would say uh I
'm most uh impressed with his interactions and his leadership with our younger students especially as he continues to model and be a great um leader and set the example for the younger students to follow ladies and gentlemen Mr Torrence Myers all right let's give it up and of course they will have a chance they are part of our agenda and they will have a chance to have share their thoughts just want to let them know so I won't let you know at the last minute so you got a little time to think abo
ut it all right thank you all again yes the picture okay okay okay y'all come on in the middle we GNA put y'all in the middle want come some tall love thank you thank [Applause] you now moving on to the adoption of the agenda with the necessary changes um we're going to pull the employee uh case that employee resigned and also we need to add under consent of the class size compliance for Howard Bishop uh middle school and with those changes there's no other I need a motion from the floor to adop
t the agenda with those changes so moved it's been moved by Dr W Rockwell and seconded by Miss Abbott is there any other discussion just real briefly yes mam chair just wanted to emphasize that for we needed to add that agenda item for good cause right okay for good cause okay thank you all right all in favor I I motion carries unanimous all right now I need a motion to approve a special board meeting minutes on the resoning from for January 11th 2024 Some Mo second been moved and properly secon
ded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor I I motion carries thank you approval of regular school board meeting minutes for January 16th 2024 some move moves second by Dr Rockwell uh any if no other discussion all in favor I I motion carries thank you approve of the special school board meeting salary minutes for January 19 2024 need a motion so Mo second all right no other discussion all in favor I actually have a question you have a question yes yes would um I was wondering when we
would get the there are a lot of strikethroughs in the book if it's been um kind of updated where you could email it or they could show it have it to us because it's a little bit hard to read can anyone on staff could tell us that when the updates to the salary schedules and all is it like available where you could email it to us to share it with us absolutely yes ma'am okay thank you all right no other disc discussion all in favor I all motion carries approval of joint meeting with city of ela
l commission minutes from January 22nd 2024 no move and moved is there a second second moved and property seconded uh if there any discussion all in favor I motion carries unanimously all right moving on to board member superintendent announcements Mr Andrew I see your light no okay now others po go ahead thank you madam chair um I'd like to begin with just honoring a couple of our employees that passed away both of them I worked with in my career and was fortunate to work with them they weren't
just employees they were colleagues of mine and they were friends of mine and we shared many conversations over the years together um about work about life and about family and just things in general so I wanted to recognize the the passing of Mr Gregory Ford at maain middle school he was the lead custodian there when I worked there um and then I'd like to also recognize the passing of Mr Dennis Hutchinson he was a carpenter in our facilities department and like I said uh they were good men tha
t that I had a lot of respect for and that we we uh spent quite a bit of of time together in the workforce so my condolences and our condolences as a board go out to the families that uh the both families are in our thoughts and prayers um Mr Hutchinson's family were thinking about you as well as Mr Ford's family as far as a call to action the NAACP has put out a call to action to support and volunteer at uh several of our schools here in the county and that would be at Lake Forest Elementary Sc
hool shell elementary school metcafe elementary school and Rawlings Elementary School and we're we're putting a call out to our community to attend the NAACP call to action meeting at Dayspring Missionary Baptist Church that's over near Duvall elementary school that will be on Monday February 12th at 6:30 p.m. so we're asking everybody to come out and join us as we lean in to support our students and our schools as we've all said before it takes the community uh for us to be successful so anothe
r U announcement is tomorrow we do have a workshop starting at 10:00 a.m. at 2:30 we have the District spelling be that will take place at Ida wild elementary school so I'll be headed over there around 2:15 actually probably around 2 o00 to join our students in The District spelling be again that's February 7th at 2:30 that's always a wonderful time as our students come together and compete in the spelling be and again I would just like to say welcome gentlemen it's great to have you all here an
d we look forward to your input thank you madam chair thank you and uh Miss Fox while you here could you tell us the address of your church on Northeast 8th Avenue so while we are making the announcement um Mr Andrew has made uh good evening Mr chair uh superintendent board the address is 1945 Northeast 8th Avenue okay so 1945 Northeast 8th Avenue is where that CommunityWide meeting will be held so please join us because it's all about our children uh Dr McNeely thank you madam chair as we saw t
onight we have so many exceptional students and I want to recognize a couple of students as well um today we had a wonderful amazing and I'm looking at her and smiling at her uh with Miss Ritter and chair um MRA um on Career and Technical education it was amazing we learned so much but I wanted to do a shout out for kayen Parker who was there um and spoke so eloquently about the desires of students and and where he what he has accomplished and what other students can accomplish as well and I thi
nk that Kaden attends um Santa Fe High um but but he was exceptional today and so kayen if you're listening tonight congratulations many students participated last Tuesday at our strategic planning I don't have all of the names of the participants but we had quite a few in the audience giving input and that's what we need to have good strong input especially from our students so to all of the students that participated on last Tuesday some of them even came back on Wednesday thank you ever so mu
ch and finally I attended the middle and high school um secondary honors Choir Oh My Gosh if you didn't come to that citizens you missed a treat and when we do it again if there is another one coming up for the springtime I hope you will find it in yourselves to participate such talent oh my gosh such talent from the middle and high school students and I want to thank Mrs Rolo who's our fin Arts director for pulling all of those schools together and we had um um what did they call them um specia
l guest conductors and I don't have in my notes I know one was from the University of Florida and I I'm so sorry I can't remember the the other conductor but to hear our children our students sing from their hearts it was unbelievable thank you madam chair thank you Dr Rockwell your light is on yes um so there have been a lot of events since our last board meeting I also attended the secondary Honor Choir and it was every bit as wonderful as my colleague Dr mcney said the students were phenomena
l and I want to thank Miss Rolo the guest conductors but also all of the community members who voted for the one mil to support our Fine Arts programs because that that event would not be possible without your support this morning I went to see Beauty and the Beast with my daughter at the Philip Center that was a collaboration between the Star Center theater and caring and sharing learning school but there were also performers from several other alatua County Public Schools and that was also abs
olutely phenomenal the students put on a nearly professional level performance with children from elementary through high school um no adults in the cast at all and it was phenomenal and again that goes back to our community supporting the Arts so thank you all for that um I also want to congratulate Miss Mrs dwite Smith our teacher of the year from metf she is a music teacher so again thank you community for supporting the Arts because without you we would have a hard time funding positions for
amazing amazing instructors like Mrs Smith and that was an absolutely wonderful event I also want to thank our media specialist at Steven Foster Elementary Mrs Scoville who invited me in to read to her students and they were inquisitive and enthusiastic and excited and funny and it was just a wonderful time spent and again our media Specialists are funded by Community Support so thank you to our community thank you um Dr Rockwell Miss certain thank you madam chair and Miss dut swith Smith our t
eacher of the year I'd like to congratulate her as well as all the other nominees and I'd like to extend my regrets that I was not able to make the last week's um make the Teacher of the Year celebration I was away at um our Florida school board board Insurance trust meeting the the winter meeting it's one of um four that I have to attend and I won't say it's the most important one but it's kind of building up to the next one that is most important that's the financial impact for our district so
my apologies I um for not being able to attend but my congratulations to um Miss Smith as well as all the other nominees for Teacher of the Year and um as Welcome to our students that are here I've already thanked our athletes and congratulated them but I wanted to share a little bit as we start with Black History Month um our commemorating it we've actually about a week into that and you know African-American history um is under attack by our in our state government at that the state level wit
h them passing laws as to what we can teach and what we can't do I mean there's just really an attack on civil liberties from the state level and um but there were people that that stood up and made took a stand so that I am able to hold my seat here and I take this time now to want to just express my gratitude to my ancestors and to the people who have laid out a pathway for me um so that I could have a agenda I come in and I want to thank the citizens of alatua County for allowing me to serve
in represent them u in the district one seat on the elaa county um School Board I don't take it lightly um that I hold this seat um you didn't elect me once you did it twice and I am very honored and to to be sitting here my journey into ad advocacy for Equitable education opportunities began long before my tenure on this board as an elected member I started out as a volunteer through my job when I worked at Gainesville Regional utilities and they started um participating as a business partner o
f Williams Elementary I was in the first group of volunteers to go to the school um weekly helped with um fundraising events um and things of that nature that progressed as my children became school age um I was a parent volunteer in the classroom myself and my husband I was treasur of tala's PTA for a number of years um actually not of the the PTA but of the inisbrook and the carnival fundraisers for several years I witnessed firsthand the disparities and the quality of Education received by st
udents of different backgrounds that Stark reality compelled me to take action and to stand up and fight for justice in our education system when the appointment of Dr Roberts the superintendent was marred by controversy and ultimately ended because they accused him of plagiarizing a book that he did not use to um secure his job back in 2016 I felt a deep disappointment like many in our community it was doing this time that I began to actively engage in meetings and forums driven by a desire to
understand the root causes of issues plagu in our schools inspired by the writings of Dr Briana Kennedy Lewis and armed with a commitment to collect data on student performance I embarked on a mission to uncover the truth and advocate for Meaningful solution Solutions my agenda was simple accountability from our district leadership and school leadership as it relates to student performance partnering with Dr an curba I sought collaboration with the district to address academic challenges faced b
y students in an after school program that was known as um Aces emotion and for students from marginalized communities despite our best efforts we were met with resistance and excuses from the Su then superintendent and the then board as well as District administrators under tur our Grassroots movement moved um our Grassroots movement known as ETF grew and we tirelessly shared our findings with the community through town halls Town Hall meetings meetings with elected officials Community groups a
nd Civic organizations our agenda was crystal clear to raise the awareness of the crisis in our educational system and to mobilize for change yet amidst our efforts I was disheartened to hear from a fellow citizen during a Gainsville forall meeting that she believed the school board didn't have to listen to us the very constituents they were elected to serve this Revelation only strengthened my resolve that night to counter seek elected office and to amplify the voices of those who've been ignor
ed for far too long my agenda as a Schoolboard number is has not been for personal game it's rooted in a deep sense of Duty and compassion for the students and families of ela County I advocate for an equitable education fiscal responsibility and meaningful Community engagement because I believe in the power of Education to transform lives and uplift communities I really really after I became um I got elected shortly after I became elected I had a gut punch there were two principles that were re
moved one before the start of the school year and one midy year I sat through a Department of Education meeting and in my view a professional was humiliated because the superintendent didn't act but she told the board and the community something different it is at that moment that I decided when I came back to elua county that every every meeting that the Department of Education was on site in one of our schools I would be in the meeting so I could hear from myself because the stories didn't ali
gn from what I was being told by the removed administrator and District staff about the poor performance of students in El County schools in two schools so it really disturbs me to hear my advocacy labeled as anything other than the well-being of students in our County I sit here before you today with an unwavering commitment to transparency accountability and Justice in our education system because that's not present I urge you to see beyond the accusations that availed they haven't been um dir
ect and recognize the sincerity of my intentions cuz together you've heard earlier about the call put out for a mass meeting meeting together as it was said earlier is what we it takes all of us to try to make an impact so I call for you as well together let us continue to work together towards the future of every child in ela County to ensure that they have access to a quality education that they deserve because that hasn't always in my view been afforded to them thank you thank you Miss Thon u
m moving on to the chair's report um again happy uh Black History Month and at this time Dr Rockwell will read our proclamation to the record Proclamation for Black History Month whereas the history of Black History Month can be traced back to 1926 when black historian author activist and educator Carter G Woodson sent out a news release announcing the first negro history week for the second week in February and whereas his idea to honor African-Americans and educate students about their achieve
ments was taken up by schools and other organizations across the country to the point that Carter G Woodson is now considered the father of black history and where's efforts to expand the week into a larger event continued until President Gerald Ford issued the first presidential Proclamation officially recognizing Black History Month in 1976 and whereas Black History Month is now celebrated throughout the nation by K12 schools universities communities and other entities and whereas alacha Count
y's Public Schools Mark Black History Month with a wide variety of activities aimed at raising awareness of the critical role of African-Americans in the nation's past present and future and whereas the district is committed to educating students about these issues throughout the school year not just in February and and whereas in collaboration with the alatua county African-American history task force and other partners in the community the district has developed curricula and learning activiti
es that have earned acps recognition as an exemplary district from the Florida African American history task force and whereas the district is committed to continued collaboration with Community Partners to promote the teaching of African-American and African history and culture in our schools and recognize is the need for an ongoing process of expanding refining and implementing an Ever evolving and culturally relevant curriculum in every classroom throughout the district now therefore be it re
solved that the school board of alacha County recognizes February 1st through March 1st of 2024 as Black History Month in alatua County Public Schools and reaffirms its commitment to ensuring that students understand and recognize the accomplishments of African-Americans dated this 6th day of February 2024 thank you Dr Rockwell uh Dr R will come and give us a transportation update Madam chair are we going to vote on receiving the proclamation oh do we need we need to vote on we did it for the um
lgbtq sure that's up to the discretion of the board um there have been proclamations in the past that the board has voted to adopt okay all right is there a motion so moved second been moved in property second that we accept this Proclamation into the record is there any discussion I'm going to continue my stand to not um go for the proclamations it's it's all stuff that we're doing in the schools already and I don't think we need to I just not we could do about General consensus but either way
it's fine I I'd recommend that we go ahead and record the vote okay all right all in favor I I all oppos four one thank you Dr brous good afternoon board chair board members and superintendent um I just want to come to you guys and bring you a update as we navigate our optimization um first and foremost I'd like to give thanks to the team um transportation team that stood behind the process with me um rerouting the district that is something that has not been done in an extensive amount of time
and we were able ble to successfully do that um we have um been in contact doing Wellness checks with the schools to ensure that the new Transportation structure is working pretty good um absolutely we do still have some little minor things that we must address as we go through the process but we pull some reports and um determine that we have a 96% on time rate and a driver for every route so um that's one of the positive things that came out of the optimization so we're still working forward
to that um about two weeks ago the third C numbers came out for ffp um and we have increased our state allocation um about $300 plus, so that also is um good for the transportation department um we are continuously evaluating our um hazards walking um looking at opportunities to work with community members to see um what can be done to evaluate our additional resources is being put in those areas where we have students who will be um taking those courtesy walks or um deemed hather is walking so
um we are um on the right path to make some corrective action within the transportation department all right thank you so much and I think it's important to our community to know these updates are important you know Transportation has been an issue for a while in this District but it's moving in a positive direction so that's why I'm asking for updates do doing my report also a very another important initiative we're working on is our transportation planning update uh at this time we've had Janu
ary 30th and uh the 31st uh the community was involved we had our strategic planning part of that strategic planning process took place over at Trinity United Methodist Church and we we had Community Partners come in and give us those ideas on those initiatives I don't know if the staff has anything they want to say at this time Miss Ro good evening Madam chair on January 30th we had the opportunity to meet with our stakeholders meeting small groups and teams to continue this strategic planning
process we had four groups that met our student achievement group teacher Recruitment and Retention group system and organizational processes and professional learning the result of each committee's work has included the development of critical initiatives intended outcomes and key measures in addition to those discussions we've talked about challenges um to our assumptions and influential influential factors that could affect improvement in our work at this work at this point the work has been
completed for A Five-Year Plan and we will be working to communicate with the stakeholders as we finalize with our committees in the next couple of months this was good work that was being done um by our community members um as well as the original strategic planning team as we continue to do this process we will keep our stakeholders um AB breast thank you Miss Ro moving on Miss Ritter for a Career and Technical education update did Miss [Music] rder okay we'll come back to miss R um Idol wild
Elementary is a winner and has received an award of Merit in this year's 2024 Florida educational facilities planners Association architectural showcase Elementary School category the Fe the ffpa architectural show showcase evaluat schools around the entire State of Florida in the following categories elementary schools k eight middle combo schools high schools and college universities around the State of Florida so we want to make and part of the um criteria the evaluation criteria includes Inn
ovative enhancements to the educational program 21st Century Learning environment fundamentals Aesthetics and use of materials Community use and engagement technology integration sustainability initiatives health and amp Wellness site design Safety and Security and design flexibility idow es was designed by roads brittle Architects thank you to our elro County Public Schools planning and construction team can you hear me okay now all right Miss Ritter ready for your update well good evening I am
super excited to give you an update about some a fun morning that we had this morning so thank you um board chair and school board and superintendent we had about 30 people um from the community and some representatives from the school district come together today um and we were asking them for input for what do they think we need in this community for Workforce um what kind of CTE program should we be adding are there programs we have we should be phasing out that is what CTE is about um we sh
ould be providing to the workforce so we always have to be looking and constantly planning ahead for what we may need to offer in the future um it was particularly rewarding today to see so many people from different Avenues in the community um from pastors to Industry um Educators there were just such a great group of people that really care about students in this community and them being engaged and wanting to come to school and having relevance in their education every day and we think one of
those ways for maybe somebody who band or chorus might not be the thing that gets them excited about school we think a lot of our CTE programs can do that and provide that relevance so I appreciate so much the opportunity and and we're not just a oneandone we have we got a a volunteer to be chair a volunteer to be co-chair we're going to meet we're going to continue to meet and get input from the community and we know that we are not as strong in what I would call the trades areas um with our C
TE programs we have wonderful CTE programs all over the district but we really want to work with the community to see how we can bring some more of those Electrical Plumbing construction some of those kinds of things we are excited and I think we mentioned it about starting the barbering and next year the H at Santa Fe right um but Mr Williams the principal from Eide did share that even just this semester bringing in the barbering has brought its first period and some of his students who were no
t necessarily showing up or showing up late are there and ready in the morning so I really appreciated the opportunity to have that that group today I appreciate all the support from the different District folks that came and supported us as well and for Eide culinary for hosting us thank you Miss R and uh I think it's important to know with that barbering class these are some of our students who are now coming to school on time and not picking up a gun if we want to know how to change the traje
ctory of our students and their behaviors you got to give them things that they're interested in and so everybody's not going to college and that's okay every single child needs a pathway in a lotu County Schools so I don't take the barber andest lightly I'm excited and especially where we had about 40 community members today who are going to get together and look at what is needed in our Workforce in our community that is is key because one of the things we need to be looking at as we move forw
ard we as a board need to probably be looking at how do we change our policy to begin to hire our Juniors and our seniors that's something for another night but that is important because if they begin to come to work and then learning in the school environment guess what they become an asset to society and so and that is why it's so important so thank you Miss R and to all of the staff for what we are doing in embracing career and techn education here in ela County uh moving on I want to just gi
ve a couple of announcements February 7th uh 2024 at 10:00 a.m. our Workshop tomorrow about book challenge you're going to learn about the book challenge process that's something we need to make sure all of us as a board understand uh the laa County Public Schools Trend report and have uh uh Trend report will be talking about discipline and attendance academics will be talked about more on the February 20 28th the half cent Capital Improvements and our 5-year plan sales update that would be on F
ebruary 7th as all as as well February 28th at 1:00 we will have the workshop on property value and reinsurance uh Duvall Early Learning Academy uh a l County Public Schools Trend report which will be about academics and our Essa funds update many of you all know we had 90 million that we received uh about two two or three years ago that funding runs out September 2024 and in speaking along the same lines of transparency it is important that we understand where we are financially and we need to
report about our Essa funds uh the next District advisory council meeting is February 21st 2024 at 4:00 p.m. and also um we have had I've had a request as the chair for letters of support from the city of Gainesville regarding the eth uh Avenue and Waldo project and just want to know they're looking for a letter of support can I get a general sensus from the board that's okay to send a letter of support that we support that project that they're trying to do on a miss miss miss green has typed up
the letter but we'll send it out to you I don't know if you have copies for them so that they can uh have it and look at it but they're looking for a letter of support our um because they've gotten some allocations they're asking for allocations from the state and stuff as well and since we use Citizens Field right now they're looking for a letter of support as well okay you have a question um yes I just wanted to ask Mr Delaney to do a letter of support do we need to vote to do that I if it's
not being sent out under the superintendent signature uh and that's something you could ask the super to do but if they're looking for the board I would recommend that you go ahead and have a vote on that okay is there a motion so moved second second moved and properly seconded that we send a letter of support in that project so the so it's for it's related to the Redevelopment of Citizens Field that project okay because theyve asked for some allocations I think they those letters will go to uh
uh representative I think Perry and Chuck Clemens and those and things of that nature yeah all in favor I all opposed thank you motion carries thank you all all right moving on to Citizen input and you all will have three minutes to speak before the board we are so happy that you're here to speak please do not mention names uh we have a member of Civility Clause uh first on my list is Avis Butler your mic is not on cut your mic on is that better yes uhhuh good evening Madam chair members of the
board Mr superintendent my name is Avis Butler I'm a resident here vacha County I come with uh great concern I'm the daughter of an educator of Dade County for over 35 years uh myself I've been a visiting profess profess at three state universities including the University of Florida so I am so much in support of our Educators uh and our staff who are here with Thea County I was really taking a back over this last week when I saw a post on social media it's my understanding when we sit on boards
that a board basically determines the policies for this District I also remember over the last year even though I was out of town most of the the past year where collectively this board looks at and evaluates the superintendent but it's up to the superintendent to evaluate either directly or indirectly the staff all of the different positions within the county but I saw something this past week where a board member actually called out one of the staff members uh and it wasn't nice it wasn't goo
d don't have any idea who that staff member might have been I don't even know our superintendent of other than what I've seen at our meetings but I thought it was inappropriate judgment since a board member is basically here to determine and decide what the policies are for the district um I also thought it was not ethical and lastly I thought that it didn't provide due process for the employee who was called out and what that does in my opinion is it affects my pocketbook because when I look at
my tax bill there's a portion of my tax bill that I have to support the school board and it does not help me when we don't provide due process to any of our employees or staff members because we set ourselves up for litigation and when litigation occurs and if we don't win then that affects our budget and that affects my purse thank you Miss so I just wanted to just again just say can we just uh do things decently and in order thank you thank you thank you next is vaj Cura [Music] curu uh hi go
od evening and uh thank you for giving me this chance uh uh so I'm here to talk about uh the IB Program implementation at the Williams uh school so on the 12th of January uh the alacha County Schools uh sent a notification regarding the magnet programs and the open school schedule and on that schedule it was mentioned that Williams will have the magnet program and Prairie School will have the IB Program uh ibpyp program program again uh a week later just a week later on the 19th of January we re
ceive uh a recorded message and also an email stating that Williams will now be going through an IB program for the coming year so there are several I this raises several questions as to why or like how things changed within a week so after going through all the details that actually require uh like an IB program to be implemented in a school it takes 12 16 or 18 24 months to basically Implement a program at a school level so how is it that we are able to arrive at such a decision without coning
uh all the current students that are at the magnet program in that school so and when we what we were told is basically when we implemented the magnet program it was implemented in a phase-wise fashion so that all the staff all the students and the whole infrastructure in the school could support such a program and the magnet program has proven to be successful because of such a careful implementation and careful consideration now the students who are at an accelerated program are now basically
not being considered and like know we are not even like the parents and we are told even the staff or the board members are also not taken into consideration when such an announcement was made so we want basically the board to reconsider or to relook at like you know how this program as was rushed and why is it that like know there is such lack of transparency on this matter as parent like we did not have any inputs we did not have an opportunity to discuss this to debate this or like know base
d on our discussions with some of the staff members and the board members I believe like it's not just the parents like even others were also not involved uh in the whole discussion so we want to basically we are seeking some answers even if there is like a separate meeting that you want to schedule we are more than happy because almost 76 out of 81 parents that we consulted have basically notified that they are unhappy with this s and they are planning to with withdraw their kids from the schoo
l if that's if like know this was this is so rushed so what we are requesting is for like know to reconstr this program like know take one more year to basically implement it in a proper fashion or like know include all the stakeholders so that this can be thought out carefully so that's that's basically what my concern is uh and this has to be taken with atmost seriousness is what how I see it thank you thank you uh H ye sorry if I announced your name incorrectly it's perfect fine okay thank yo
u good evening everyone my name is Hani um I have been here a couple of times before and you probably recognize me and really happy to see here today and see such great achievements for the young kids and the you know athletes super proud of them seriously um kudos for all but I'm very very uncomfortable here today I have to ask our leaders to reconsider the policies and to reconsider don't implement the IB program in Williams it's almost ironic when I hear that you guys are taking all the input
s we got no chance to put the inputs no time and no one ever ask us what will impact our kids right and you got input from the high school from the middle school what about the little ones do they talk do you ask them ask parents please right that's the right way to do things and also um as educator you should and you may and you have known that kids are our top priorities we do not tolerate putting our kids into any experimental terms right as Leaders what we do we do not just provide orders we
take the inputs we know what people need we know what kids need then take actions right now there's no input there's no action plans there's no basically nothing I always believe to right things for right reasons I don't know the reason behind it why we in such a rush to put IB programs without telling everyone right just in one week say hey we are going to do the IV program I don't care right now but I hope the reasons can be shared in the future for the transparencies that that's really one o
f our top priorities for running the whole Community for using taxpayers money the other thing is do the right thing please if you are driving education programs like reckless drivers reckless drivers create what the chaos right traffic chaos and now you're creating disaster in education that's really not acceptable so as a parent of the kids in the Williams program this the school with long lasting successful programs I really urge you to reconsider this don't put IB program this year not next
year not next next year until you find out all the resources in place find out that's the right thing for all the kids then do it that's a very sincere request from the parent thank you very much thank you Lena Q good evening everyone um thanks for the opportunity so um I stand here to speak for my own child and also I share very common I mean um opinion as the previous two parents who raised the concern of IB implementation at Williams um so we all feel it's kind of in a rush we want to have a
solid plan otherwise kids will be the ones who will get hurt and we don't want such a nice IB program to be ruined as well right so we all understand it's a great program but what's happening now is there's lack of planning we don't know how the teachers are going to be trained we don't know how the teachers will even teach this heterogeneous type of classroom when you have levels one to five kids will not get much attention as before and they will not get as much education from the school so th
ey're on their own mostly so um I share all the concerns and I will not repeat everything and I do want to request please have a input session for us for the other parents to come here and speak for their from their own perspectives maybe you know everybody you know can can be biased from their own benefits but you know please have a input session so everybody else can speak here um so the parents did a poll survey to see what will happen you know if IB is here and magnet classes are gone and we
have the results it's not good so out of the 81 families entered the survey only four families said they are going to stay IM magnet so that means means 94% of the fam's kids will be gone so how can IB be implemented anyways it's going to be failing so we don't want anything bad record from the IB Program either right so we want to have a good thing good start good image so we want have good planning and we want to hear from the parents so that everybody can benefit school district will benefit
I mean IB is a honor I really love it but you know it's not the right way to do it so yeah please H have an input session for us thank you thank you Marie vaness vanice hi this is Donan okay I am also a parent from Williams my daughter is a second grader in the Williams magnet program you will hear from all of us the there is an absolute Pandora's box of issues um that have come out since we found out about this and the deeper we look into it the more questions and the bigger concerns that we h
ave um some of the biggest of those are complete lack of transparency uh regarding the process a really disconcerting lack of planning a lack of request for input from any invested or impacted groups um you know all of those things don't speak well um to leadership um and those have you know basically been made apparent by the just sudden dissolution of a longstanding and well-respected magnet program that has been at Williams um all of these serious issues and concerns deserve to be aired fully
in Community Workshop dedicated specifically to this and to happen as speedly as possible we are in the middle we have one week left of the magnet programs this happened halfway through um and something that should be not lost amidst the objective concerns is the reason why we're willing to this program not only has a lot of value for the high achieving students in here but it creates a great Community the students the teachers the families develop a community and we don't want to lose that we
have asked that they find a way to help matriculate our students through this program thank you thank you so much Taylor gfin hi folks Taylor gillin former director of data analytics evaluation and accountability at acps and current DC member um I was going to address one thing but I'm actually going to address two things now um I think the one that I'll start with the one I had planned I want to I think take a chance to address some misleading statements and interpretations that I've been heard
shared regarding school grades I think one of the headlines that I'm continuing to hear is that we're turning things around and that school grades have improved and I think it warrants much deeper than discussion just than just that I think when you look at the data achievement didn't increase achievement didn't approve what happened was the state lowered the bar and when we continue to use metrics like school grades that set a really low Bar for our kids I think we're doing them at service and
communicating those results and it looks like I have two minutes instead of the three so I'll try to be a little bit more quick um I think some recommendations like I'll go through and I'll put my data in an email but I think we need to stop rooting discussions of academic Health in school grades I don't think it's student centered and it doesn't serve our kids when we inflate the progress that is or isn't happening in our schools um the other thing I was going to share is board members I don't
know if you maybe even know this or if you got a SL check I just found out that the report I've been emailing you about of not having been posted for tomorrow's board meeting was posted today and I looked at the metadata and it was actually posted at 4:54 p.m. today um I also find that concerning going into a discussion regarding the superintendent's contract tonight that that data that would have been really pertinent in a conversation around evaluating the superintendent's results was shared
an hour before the board meeting was getting ready to sit down and discuss his contract so I'll come back that's a little bit later but those are just some of my concerns I'd like to share thank you and I'm going to ask you Mr gfin in the future to address the chair and not high folks thank you yes ma'am thank you um Melina Wilson and and Madam chair just to clarify um we have now had 21 members of the public sign up so we at two minutes anytime we get past 20 you have two minutes instead of thr
ee minutes because of time you only have a half an hour he's he's keeping up with the time M chair yes thank you for allowing me this time to speak I am a parent of the Williams magnet program and my little one was here earlier but he's a budding student athlete and so he had practice um the IB program is designed to allow all the students at Williams to have an increased enriched curriculum and Williams has long been a a school in the east side of town that allows those students opportunity to
have just what our students in magnet program have the magnet programs continue to be part of the school choice and so if we don't want our students to be in a school that allows all students a higher bar then maybe our students don't need to be there I must be one of the four parents who didn't sign on to say that we were moving our students because he will be staying um we entrust our students to that school leadership to those teachers and to the school board to do what is best for all studen
ts for all students and Williams students the students in that Community who are zoned there have the absolute right and we have a responsibility to ensure that they get exactly what our students at Magnet get we all rise together is that is that not the adage and so I I I find some discomfort and a little bit of angst and anger that we would stand here and deny students any student the right to a higher level of Education um while we may not be able to have open comment on everything that happe
ns we have to UST the people we elected the people we employ the they are doing what's best not just for our students but for all students again school choice is a wonderful thing in this state and in this district and it is absolute right of a parent to move their child where they want but it is not our right as an individual parent to deny other students and other parents opportunity the magnet program is there to to provide a little bit more enrichment but it doesn't mean that the normal curr
iculum should suffer thank you for mind thank you uh Miss Carter good evening um Madam chair board student Representatives um I stand as a parent of a former magnet student at Williams Elementary School and I concur with all the great things that have been said about the magnet program at Williams um I also want to give this disclaimer just in case my bosses are watching I am standing as a private resident of Gainesville not representing any governmental public or private organization I am stand
ing as Yvette Carter Community Advocate um uh I I could rep Zeta fa beta Sor Incorporated I think that one's okay but the rest of them that that is not me tonight um so I I I do fully support um and have been a longtime supporter of Williams Elementary my son that I spoke about is now about to be 27 years old and he entered the magnet at Williams um when he was in the second grade I don't know how long that program was going before he entered the magnet but I do know at some point it was new I d
o know at some point we didn't know all the ins and outs about it um I do hear the concerns of parents who said that there is um have been maybe lack of transparency they don't know what's going on they have questions so I would call Madam chair on um those in in leadership to have some level of a workshop or information session but I also stand as the last speaker did whom I kind of like a little bit um I do also stand um in support of just their expertise and their knowledge I do entrust the p
eople uh that we employ a former speaker said that you know we employ so I do and trust that that the right things are happening my son was also a neighborhood kid so Not only was he in the magnet but he was from the neighborhood and how exciting is it um to be able to provide a higher um bar for all those students thank you Miss car I'll end with that right thank you all right that's all I have for sent us and input at this time we're going to move on to our consent agenda um Mr Andrew you need
a break I'll give you a break after this thank you madam chair the superintendent recommends that the school board approve the consent agenda as described in items 2 through 11 and as you know 11 is the class siiz compliance that we added during the agenda adoption all right is there a motion move staff recommendation excuse me say move with staff recommendation all right second okay it's been moved and properly second uh is there any discussion hearing none all in favor I I all opposed okay at
this time we're going to take a five minute recess and then we'll come back uh as we move on to the action items make no mist all right we are ready to convene our meeting thank you all for that break we're on to the superintendent contract um Mr Delaney yes maam Madam chair um uh you and I both met with superintendent and his representative Miss seagull number of times to uh work out the contract um this has been uh attached to the agenda and provided to the board members I think I've also had
the opportunity to speak with each one of the board members and go through the contract and answer any questions they have about it so um this is now before the board for consideration and I'll turn it back to you all right thank you all right colleagues we received the contract and at this time I need a motion um regarding the contract okay wait I'm get them in the lights I have uh Miss Abbot I mean Miss certain I'm sorry thank you um so I did have a chance to meet with Mr Delaney I I didn't r
ealize that the contract was posted so I didn't get a chance to try to meet in person with Mr superintendent but I did um try to reach out to him um about that and I M if I may I I hesitate to interrupt but just for the flow of our meeting I would recommend that we get a motion a second if we've got public input take that and then we come back to the board for disc so how we handle if there's parts of this we'd like to try to amend so then then yes bam I would recommend that we just just take on
e Amendment at a time if once we have a motion in a second all right we'll do all right so um need a motion I am going to move that in paragraph and and actually what I'm what I'm recommending right now is that we get a motion by the board and a second regarding the contract and then if we need to have any then I recommend that we get citizen input and then if we have amendments we take him up at that point right all right move with um we move with discussing the contract as presented okay that'
s it's been moved and properly seconded all right and at this time we're going to have discussion um I'm G to do that's what I'm getting ready to do uh at this time I have see one two you'll have two minutes uh with the board and and we have and what I'm going to do is um you have phone calls okay we're going to go with the phone calls first you have two minutes with the board caller please St your name we have two minutes on the board you have two minutes with the board and we have what I'm GNA
do is caller please state your name you have two minutes to the board are you there yes you're live with the board you have two minutes yes I'm here please state your name you have two minutes with the board thank you my name is Ann sto and I'm a parent of three students in the elal County School System an eighth grader a fifth grader and a third grader two years ago four of you were elected to the board by citizens in this County the election came after what was a very tumultuous year and your
appointments gave hope that finally this District would make forward progress one of the first things that I'll will be looking at as a new board member coming in is coming up with an action plan where we as a board have to have our expectations for the process of hiring a new superintendent the people have spoken I would like to see a national search we will work with Mr Andrew during the time frame that we have to but we need to move forward I think it would be wise to look nationally for a c
andidate those are two of your campaign promises tonight you're voting on whether or not to give a raise to superintendent Andrew this shouldn't even be up for a vote because you promised to conduct a national search to find the best candidate for our district superintendent Andrew has not moved the needle on one measurable goal or strategic initiative after almost two years he originally asked for a $50,000 raise a hefty pension a three-year contract but has yet to achieve any goals aligned wit
h the Strategic plan voting yes on this raise would put him at a higher pay rate than his two predecessors the teachers in this County deserve better and the students in this County deserve better than the most recent excuse of I didn't because I was interim if you wouldn't have voted for Karen Clark or Dr Simon to have this raised without measurable goals then you shouldn't be voting for Doc TR prenant salmon Andrew to have this rais thank you thank you um moving on to miss Butler Avis Butler t
hank you madam chair members of the board Mr superintendent I'm hearing all the different comments but I did some research myself over the last uh couple of weeks to see how our school was progressing and based on the school report card that I happen to actually make a copy of and look at and just compare it against the different counties I wanted to take a look at when we looked at what was being asked in terms of the salary amount and compare them to the other counties which were similar and I
saw that what our superintendent was asking was in line with what we had when you looked at the other counties now the outliers would have been Duvall County because of the number of students with Duval County and Lee County but then I saw as I did my research that Charlotte County Indian River County paying their superintendent $180,000 with only 50 15,000 16,000 students respectively so when we look at the amount that's being requested by the superintendent it certainly wasn't out of line wit
h what's being paid to comparable uh superintendents in the different counties so I also took a look at the grades and when I noticed that we went from 2021 to 2022 we went from having uh 12 students okay we had 13 in the a category we had 15 okay in the B category 12 Butler in the C category and we only had one particular School Miss brother okay that was at that point I have to come back and ask y'all for more time so that I can make the presentations thank you Noah coughman good evening uh Ma
dam chairwoman and everyone else um I uh I feel a little weird doing this this is I don't know Mr Andrew and I I don't know enough to criticize him or compliment him um so I I'll avoid that I I looked like the last speaker at data that's presented by the Florida Department of Education and the the comparison that makes the most sense to me would be Leon County leyon county has Florida State University there they have 4,000 more students than we do and I believe their superintendent according to
Department of Education makes $160,000 per year I called their HR today to determine if that was true or not and I was told by a woman named Valerie that he actually has paid $169,450 and so if we were going to compare apples and apples I don't know about those other counties that uh the previous speaker spoke about but leyon makes the most sense to me but whatever um I wore this shirt tonight not because I'm a big Gator fan I have gator degrees and all that uh I wore this because the real magne
t in the room is the University of Florida uh and I could talk a lot about that but I got 42 seconds uh it was said to me earlier that maybe this contract has been renegotiated and there may be amendments or such I if that's possible I would like to speak again after we learn whether it's changed but the contract that was posted for the agenda says $190,000 including a $800 car all which I believe facilities has a car marked for him already plus 10% to his F FRS which in my addition multiplicati
on whatever I come up with $222,000 and I'm a teacher uh and I'm happy to be a teacher I don't get paid a lot of money and all my students remind me of it daily um but it it there's a problem here and if you let me finish I won't have to come back you got we got to give everybody two minutes you can always always you know we have citizen input at the end you won't let me say the punch no we got to stay at two minutes I apologize Chris douche DCH okay evening m madame chairman board members super
intendent Andrew um I'm not a very good public speaker so if you'll bear with me the first um thing I want to address is water under the bridge um I'm disheartened that we're having this discussion disheartened because like many other citizens I canvased for this board members that were promised to undertake a national search for a new superintendent because all the children of this District deserve the best the hour spent weekends given up the heat and humidity endured felt unappreciated to say
the least disheartened to think that the majority of the board went back on their pledge and decided not to commence that search um the particulars of the superintendent salary seem excessive as the last speaker said I think Leon County would be very comparable to what we have here with the University of Florida and University um FSU you know our tax based is not equate to some of the other districts so where's the money going to be coming from um higher salary than surrounding okay I'm sorry t
here's the retroactive 403b catch-up contributions monthly stipend for for car on top of that salary really exceeds anything given to Prior uh superintendence and given these particulars you would think that you would need some tasks completed uh agenda items punched to get that if he was a pro athlete we'd want to see you know is he MVP you know did he win the Super Bowl you know to get to get uh that kind of a raise um and I think that we can see with the rezoning not happening the rushed IB p
rogram at Williams um and you know what about the overall strategic plan it seems like it's kind of in a disarray so I believe um John job performance should be one of the biggest um drivers for salary and benefits that would reward the superintendent for for his work and I thank you for listening thank you uh Taylor G gin good evening Madam chair board members uh I'm going to actually shift the conversation in a little bit I I hear a lot of us focusing tonight on salary um in all honesty Mr And
rew I I empathize I can't imagine being in a situation like this where everyone's talking about my salary I I can just imagine that's like a uncomfortable situation to be in right now I think two things I really want to think about is I bet every one of these board members in front of us would be willing to pay $190,000 if it got us results we'd be willing to to pay the salary and and these benefits if it meant we close the achievement Gap our kids are safe and they're coming to school so I thin
k for me I the things that I'm most concerned about here aren't necessarily the salary number I think you pay for what you get for I think the issues is just we're going into this with without two things one is data and one is goals so I alluded to the data report just being mentioned uh I know that the testing window because of the windows because team used to manage it gets delayed on how you can report it so I'm I'm not necessarily worried about not seeing fast pm2 data on the report I just h
ad a chance to glance at um the last time this board saw disaggregated student achievement results was in June 2023 um I'm going to share three questions that I know and I don't have to ask because I know all five of you care really deeply about you're deeply invested in seeing all students be successful and closing the achievement Gap you want kids to come to school and you want kids to be safe and I think you deserve and the community deserves that information if you're getting ready to make a
decision about a leadership position that according to this contract is going to go for the next three years so I think my ask to this board just if you think those qual questions are relevant and matter I urge you to consider to either delay this conversation of moving forward with this contract into you can get the evidence you need or that you come together and set really clear goals that if we move forward with this contract you know exactly what you're going to be getting thank you Michael
Perkins good evening Madam chair board I just want to say that um I got here tonight kids from all over the county um Everybody almost almost everybody could relate to Mr Andrews he served this Community Schools all over the place and I don't know how you put a dollar on that everybody in this community almost every school almost every municipality uh this man ha has earned everyone's respect so um Mr I I was here um few weeks ago at a meeting I shared my own personal experience about my childr
en growing up through um mabang middle school and and um and what he get a great job in that community and I and I raised four kids there when I was there I served on the um School advisory commission for all those years that my kids were there so all of those people who were here tonight gave their own testimony of who this man is so I don't know about anybody else but I I think that testimony that was unsolicited tonight is the greatest endorsement for Mr Andrew and I I appreciate if you all w
ould take that in consideration thank you thank you uh Amy tras thank you madam chair oh I'm at 30 seconds can I get re my time reclaim he'll get I can talk fast I can't talk that fast y'all you have to walk away we'll reset you all right thank you mad chair uh so like everyone that spoke before me I see both positives and benefits um and I've had a chance to have many conversations with uh Mr Andrew and I I you know I can talk to him about a cruise but not necessarily about our education system
uh my problem is twofold um he's asking for more without qualifications we've seen uh an unprecedented level of turnover a number of issues and reports of his leadership um and he's failed to provide data for his plans or effectiveness I don't know if we remember um he proposed in a motion for an IB or magnet school over on the east side but had no idea of how we were going to pay for it he just said that it wasn't going to come from the half-cent sales tax and said that we would figure out fun
ding down the line um another thing that's particularly concerning is that we've asked multiple times for a list of the things that he's done or accomplished or achieved and we still haven't gotten that the other point the other point that I'd like to make that is concerning is that every single one of the people on our board made a commitment to their constituents when they ran that they were going to do a search and so you have a commitment and a duty to honor your word to the people that put
you in office otherwise you can't be worthy of that office so my concern is that we can be so wish-wash when nothing has been done to prove that that reason has Merit or value um and so I guess I'd like to know what changed and I I'd like to know at what point do our children have enough value that we can honor our word and recommit ourselves to the success of every student by ensuring that we have the best candidate possible and until you open it up for a search and look at all the candidates I
don't think that you'll really know thank you thank you all right Evelyn Fox good evening again um Madam chair uh superintendent and board members after listening to everyone that's come up here before me um about the search and the promise you are made uh doing your campaign apparently something has happened um um for you to change your mind and I think it's something for the betterment of the students I am hoping it's all about the children and you all are putting them first when you consider
everything now we've had seven superintendant in the last um how many seven 10 10 years 10 superintendant now who in their right mind do you all think would come here to accept this job y'all let's be realistic who do you think's going to come the people when we did a national search and paid all this money to a firm and it didn't work out then so why are we spending all the these dollars our dollars where we could use it for something else y'all please be realistic nine superintendent who do y
ou think is coming from across these United States who do you think's coming here let us keep what we have until this contract ends hopefully things will get all better um I'm seeing positive things and the community is willing to help but y'all be real people not coming here for a job and we already hired and fired nine people I think Mr Andrew should stay let's give him a chance to try to straighten us out locally no better person than somebody locally to help us do this and then after Mr Andr
ews and his team thank you m uh clear things up then do the national search but we'll be wasting money thank you thank you Miss Fox that's all of the citizens you have one one on the [Music] phone caller police station name you have three minutes with the board you have two minutes with the board caller please state your name you have two minutes with the board hi this is Prescott kohs I am uh commenting a little bit about process and a little bit about the content of the agenda item that you're
discussing um in October of 2023 the board approved a motion to have a superintendent contract brought back to the December 5th board meeting that's how it's recorded in the minutes and that happened you brought it back to the December 5th board meeting you got spooked and you didn't do anything with it but that happened after that the board never voted to take any other action related to the board contract or related to the superintendent's contract specifically the board never voted to direct
either the board attorney or the staff attorney to continue negotiating contract for the superintendent so I find it problematic that this process is happening uh even though there was not any in the record board action to direct it um to happen so I think as elected officials you should care about both your policies and your processes uh I'm going to share a couple quotes with you as I had before one of them is from President John Adams it says government is instituted for the common good for
the protection safety Pro prosperity and happiness of the people and not for the profit honor or private interest of any one man family or class of men if you approve the contract as it's presented it's going to conflict with your current board policy and I think that's going to be very problematic for you so in principle you need to be deciding are you going to be in agreement with your own policy specifically policy 1020 which states that any salary adjustments or supplements that would consti
tute bonuses must be based upon work performance and in accordance with for the law that determination of such bonus must include a process that describes performance standards and an evaluation process consistent with policy 1220 evaluation of administrative Personnel thank you that is all of the citizen comment slips that I have so we turn it back to the board I see Miss Abbott's light uh I have amendments to the contract also so I'm not sure how oh did you want to speak sir no ma'am oh oh oka
y okay you there is a motion on the floor and so now you're able to say whatever amendments you want and you can tell us to go to what page and what have you right yes ma'am and I think Miss certain had oh I didn't see her light on before had indicated C could I request uh a brief recess okay we got a brief recess 5 minutes minutes [Music] can you all right we're back in session I have one more citizen input before we bring it back to the board Mr Calvin camps Madame chair Calvin camps um I went
to high school in L County I still live here I've seen a lot of superintendents but I don't know if I've seen a super superintendent that's earned respect you know we all the adults get up and they speak maybe we should listen at some of the students and then where they talk I have a granddaughter when we talk about Mr Andrews she has all these positive things to say and she's not the only one they're numerous so we get these people that come up and want to say something negative about Mr Andre
ws I think he's done an outstanding job for the time he's been there one of the things I like about him is his people skills his ability to work with people and create a higher sense of morale before you make progress you have to do that I think he does a very good job of that um even if he makes a little more money maybe we need to be a little bit above in the pay in L County we need to leave the pack we need to worry about what Leon County's doing we have our own man here we pay him for what h
e he's doing so I I I will fully support that contract and I would like to see the board members supported as well Mr Andrews I appreciate what you do and you're welcome here in L County for as long as you want to be here thank you thank you all right Mr Delaney okay thank you for um that opportunity I wanted to just clarify a couple things um there has been um some thorough discussion um with Mr Andrew and and his representative uh over the course and I just wanted to make sure that we were nai
led down um what the board has before it now uh which is a proposed contract with a salary of 190,000 a term that runs through June 30th of 2027 um and uh those are the highlights there's other things that are similar to what have been in Prior superintendent contracts with the district such as the car allowance that has certainly been in there for the last um several contracts for for prior superintendent um there was I also wanted to clarify one thing just for the Public's benefit um Florida h
as two tracks that superintendant can be employed on one is an appointed superintendent who's hired by the board and appointed to serve um there are other superintendants in other counties who are elected and there's a specific uh salary schedule that the state establishes based on the population of that County which determines what the salary is going to be so it is a little bit of apples to oranges comparison between us and Leon because Leon has an elected superintendent and that salary schedu
le established by the state is different than um it is would be for appointed superintendent so um there may be just for process for the board members um there may be questions or or tweaks um suggestions of changes to the what the board has um before it now I would recommend that we just go through that process if if that is the casee that there would be um proposed amendment see if we get a second we can have discussion on that amongst the board members take a vote on that um and then if there
's more than one we just deal with them serially one at a time okay vot on one at a time yes ma'am okay got it all right uh Miss certain thank you madam chair um as I was going to say um in section five 5 five it's a little thing there and comparing that um it looks like paragraph a MH um not withstanding paragraph 5.3 I think that should be referencing section 56 a so I move that we update that um reference there in paragraph 5.5a to reference paragraph 5.6 that's my motion it's ALS it's in the
re twice did yeah and I'm typo you know I'm I'm understanding that I'm looking at the version that is on the agenda um attached to this meeting I'm on my laptop and and that version in 5.5a does reference section 5.6 okay we need to make sure we have but you see it on the one that's online yes ma'am all right so question and what I'll say if if we need to make sure everybody's on exactly the same page um you know we we can get copies distributed uh and that might even save us some time if we nee
d to if anybody's got any questions Mr Delaney they have copies in their binders and I have a question for 5.58 is it um at the beginning where it says now withstanding paragraph 5.3 above because I fix the otherwise defining Section 5 .6 she he's looking at so on theirs on Ys it's different yes no ma'am uh the very last line of 5.5a does say section 5.6 I'm just he's looking online at the correct one and she yeah I'm looking online too but I was making sure the top of the paragraph I thought I
gave them the update in all honesty I printed I I the copy I'm working from I printed the wrong one the no I I printed what was there last week and we have the copy in my binder says 5.3 it says 5.3 oh and and then Mr Delaney emailed me changes that's what happened so he Emil me the changes and I made them I think there was like three changes and then I changed those all right what we gonna do is let Mr Delaney lead us do you want me to print go print them quickly no no okay Mr Delan is saying y
es so I will be right back made okay before I go with my others all right okay sounds good all right go ahead and print that we going no she's going to here there three things she said she was going to tell us I think it would be better if the board just has the the final version in front of we did have a very robust discussion we were trying to to get this tweaked and we went through multiple revisions I do want the board to to have it locked in and so they know in front of them the exact versi
on that they have I think we can still have some discussion and use this time productively if there are other concerns uh as we go but and we'll get the final version for the so um Mr D did you make did you revise and you have your notes did you revise SE paragraph 61 or section 61 you need to speak up Miss Ser so we all can hear you which section are you saying 6.1 I was asking if there are any changes he was saying we could go ahead and have discussion there uh continueed discussion and so so
so 6.1 that's currently before the board um has a proposed salary of $190,000 a year annually okay um and so in a term that runs through June 30th 2027 okay and there's obviously other Provisions in there the the retr pay back to July 1 2023 and and other parts I think have been discussed okay all right so there were no no changes that we're waiting on Miss green is what I was asking so yes ma'am um for me um I I think that I'm I'm trying to get there some things that I'd like to to change in he
re so first being the salary I think to bring it um I move that the salary the existing rate be um increased by the three and a half% that the staff received in recent pay negotiations um so I moved that in in lie of 190 um the salary be the three and a half increase the existing salary be um increased to 35% do we know what that would be um 6,125 so would make the total pay $181,200 8 1,125 so okay so we're GNA take them one at a time okay so you've heard and so you're making that as a u that's
a motion motion um she's made the motion that we make his salary increase it by 3 and a half% coming to a total of1 181,182 what's the pleasure second it's been moved in second all right this is confusing why is it confusing it's confusing because what if we're gonna if someone else is making a a motion on an amendment to the salary and so it you know we're voting on this or you know it's like your mic's off there has to be a a smoother process Workshop would have been smoother that's why I was
trying to that's why yeah that's and you look back at the 2321 Workshop that you all said happened did not happen the whole discussion was about cuz cuz cuz people's pictures were put up on Facebook the whole thing was about the superintendent search it was never about the contract so as we move forward I'm going to correct these things that have been put out there on Facebook that are not fair because as colleagues I'm G to make this clear as colleagues we are here to have a robust conversatio
n and we are to agree but one of the things we're not to do is be unethical and go on or go on on Facebook and discuss things that we are paid to do by our citizens no other elected official I'm looking on Facebook but as we move forward I want to make it clear we are going to be respectful or one another and we're here everybody will be heard but I want to make that clear thank you Mr Delaney if I may Madam chair to address Miss Abbott's Point um there may be other ideas about uh a more appropr
iate salary in the opinion of the board than what has been suggested right now so this would be the time that that could be addressed because we've got a motion in a second there can be discussion um and even though it's not in the form of an amendment yet you could advocate for a different number if if that's what you would like to do or a different sort of compensation scheme and then you know that your Amendment could be the next one if this one fails may I ask attorney M mcne I want us to be
clear yes ma'am go ahead Madam chair thank you so attorney Delaney help me because if Mrs Abbott has an amount that she wants and I have an amount that I want are you saying that then the motion that colleague ceron put out we should just X that one no no I'm not I mean not I shouldn't say x but if I don't vote for it fails and then we don't vote for Miss Abbotts and then we don't vote for mine then where are we are we back to the 190 I I don't get it sure and and yes ma'am if any Amendment fai
ls then we're back to the form of the contract that um is currently before the board without any alterations um and so we're going to need to work through this item by item and not to make this more complex but at the end of the day we also it's a two-party agreement right between the board and the superintendent so we're also going to need to have the superintendent agree to these items as well uh whether that happens on the DI tonight or at some future time um the the board just needs to be aw
are that the the changes it it wants to make it may want to hear from the superintendent whether those are acceptable or um once we get you know further down the line but for right now if any board member has a different proposed compensation scheme than what has been suggested in Miss certon Amendment now would be the time to bring it up that could be a basis for voting either for it or against it and then you might have a different compensation scheme and if this amendment fails then the chair
could call on you you could propose yours and we go from there okay Miss ABB so I have a few things to say before I say when I want um we have programs in our district that work very well especially the magnet programs IB um the CTE at Lofton there are a lot of things that work well there are very there are a lot of schools that are very successful but there are also schools that struggle and um and that has always been an issue with me and it continues to be issue with me there are programs th
at the superintendent is looking to put in place um like the ibpyp at Williams and um I feel confident that the superintendent and his staff are going to work with all the parents at that school for a successful implementation of the program The District also has the opportunity um that was given to us from the state to be one of of of five districts that had can have a year round program and that is going to be implemented at mataffin Rawlings and that model has proved to be very beneficial for
our our most struggling Learners and successful models yearround models not only have a different calendar but they also have an extended day they have H high impact teachers and a culture that reflects a positive learning environment for the students and for the teachers and for the parents there are many things this District needs to do better there were problems issues struggles in the district before Mr Andrew became superintendent and everything will not be fixed overnight but we need to p
roceed with a sense of urgency and an attitude that change and I mean step out of your comfort zone change must occur now is not the time for superintendent search I don't think that any quality candidate would apply to work for a board that is clearly divided um especially when our district has a track record of seven superintendents in 10 years the Board needs to put aside personal issues with one another and work together to support the superintendent when the time comes for a superintendent
search we are much more likely to have quality candidate Supply if we prove that this board is united with the goal of providing the best education possible for all students in our district and having said that my change to the salary is more of a salary slash incentive my proposal is that we offer the superintendent a base salary of $182,500 and that we provide additional salary increases based on um completion of task if you want to say that so for example uh and this this is this is this is o
ne so for example if at the end of this school year 2324 the superintendent receives effective or highly effective uh evaluations from the majority of the stool of the school board members the five of us then he gets a 5,000 increase to his salary at the end of the year based on grades received from the Florida Department of Education based on Fast testing if the four CIS schools which are Lake Forest uh metf Rawlings and shell um if they have moved up to a c he gets a one-time $2500 salary incr
ease for each of the schools that meet that goal now if he does that it puts him a little over 190,000 but if he can move those four schools to a c he deserves every sin at that and so for me it's I want to support the superintendent I have I have supported the superintendent and I will continue to do so I know that things are not going to happen quickly and I'm not a patient person and so it's that's really hard for me sometimes but I feel like if if salary additional salary is based on complet
ion of things that I think are important and that will make our school system more um successful then I think it it's worth it so that's mine okay could I ask one point of clarification the SI $2500 bonus it's not a bonus it's a a salary increase salary increase one time only one time only wait wait so you're saying that she said it's a salary increase but you're saying if it's one time I don't I'm not well I mean it's just it it it goes to a salary I mean it's OB obviously it stays but it's not
like the next year if he pull kid he pulls kids out he'll get another $2,500 it's just it's just a one time this year that we increase the salary that much based on completion of those things you're saying increase the base salary that increase the base salary yes if it was just an incentive I could support that I'm I'm not sure I could support the um the $2500 for $2,500 to get a school up to a c i you I I thought you were saying a bonus of that incentive Place 25 we have four more he's T pull
ed three out we have four more of these schools that got to be pulled up I mean and so $2500 is reasonable for each school is what you're saying correct I am and so and and if he completed all of that if he had got a really good evaluation effective highly effective from the majority of us then he would get $5,000 that that would bring it up to 1875 and then if he if he gets all four of those schools up that's 10,000 bucks and so that does make his salary higher than 190 but if he can bring thos
e four schools up this a lot of work it's a lot of work he deserves it okay I have a question M Rockwell Dr Rockwell um what happens if schools drop he doesn't get the B he well that's affected in he doesn't get the bonus but it's also affected in his evaluation right but what if it's not these four schools what if let's say Ida Wilder toer or my focus are these schools that are are continuing to not make progress the state is talking about not resetting where they stand in si status unless they
have two consecutive years at a c so okay so let's just let's just throw s CSI out of it let's just take these four schools here that have been struggling for years Lake Forest metf Rawlings and shell and let's just not attach a label to it and let's just say if they bring bring their school up to a c they get he gets that $2,500 salary increase I mean you're you're tying this stuff to achievement and to and to the superintendent doing what we're expecting him to do if he doesn't do that we jus
t aren't paying $190,000 salary we're paying a lot less salaries so miss AB I can I can you reasoning that I can I can support that but I think um the rated effective or highly effective we need to develop a super uh uh an evaluation tool because what we have now isn't sufficient and that is that is another one of the Amendments that I have so I have yeah I have one too so I think you and I are thinking along the same line [Music] um so do you miss abbit are you finished I'm finished yeah but I
is Dr mcil gonna do hers or I don't know how how we're doing this I had a question for colleague Abott Mrs Abott um please explain when you said the $2500 for MO we taking SI out but the four schools that need Improvement then that 2500 per per school that will be from that would be a salary Bas salary added to the base salary so there would be no removal of that the next year if that school if those schools maintain okay I like that so what about the percent increase I don't want to do both bec
ause I think that that B that binds the district financially and um I didn't make my comments about the salary thing but I can support what you're saying U Miss ab and but and since you made your comments I want to go ahead and add what I have and looking at comparable districts and what school schools have to pay there is the discretionary millage rate 748 and that Mill is meant for for staff pay right all of the districts that have been mentioned don't have 55% of their property exempt from pl
aning property tax so our 748 does not generate near the revenue for L County that other District so when we pay more than the average we're setting precedent here I mean the next person come in if they've got a they have a PhD and they have years of executive level experience they're going to want that and more so what what we do here tonight is not just consuming or encumbering today's resources we also have to look ahead to what we're encumbering in the future and so and if we put it all in t
he person who is in this building that's leaves fewer dollars for the people that are in the school buildings that are out there with directing but I I can support the incentive based um rate um that You' you've the colleague has has suggested there without the corresponding increase um salary increase percentage increase um each year so thank you um for that M Miss Miss Abbott did you have something Dr mcnell you no I I I don't I'm waiting for some other sections however okay Dr Rock your light
is still on Miss Abbott your light is still on all right okay so now we have so the compromise here you had one wait wait let me make sure I'm clear we had 181 125 is what you propos miss Abbott came and she talked about 1825 along with the incentive steps so if he gets highly effective or effective or highly effective he gets a $5,000 ra majority if the majority board agrees uh if the majority of the board does that okay and then if he moves our CSI schools or those schools those four schools
that were named he would get $2,500 for each school okay so 1825 versus 180 one25 not much different so 1825 can we accept those Amendment amendments for that so um I I can I move that we I I have one other question before I do that and I will make the motion um so I I guess the question I'm not sure if it was Dr Rockwell that said that if we have another school that slips down will we put something in to counteract that well that's part of the evaluation I mean that's part of what we're expecti
ng and one of the things we can do when you look at the evaluation one of the thing and the reason why I know when I did the contract you keep you I want to talk about that right quick the evaluation is because we do have a strategic planning process in place and when Mr Delan and I talked about this and he's seen it work well in other districts we've always had this section about goals but nothing about the strategic planning and we will have those four initiatives by the end of the school year
June 24 will we be totally complete with our process no but we will know the four things that this community has spent all of these months working on to have and so one of the other things we could do because when I looked at another contract um I added information about um with after we approve his contract then we can add another sentence it says the criteria of that assessment meaning his evaluation we can look at that and decide within 30 days what the evaluation tool will look like that we
can add that that way we have a time to discuss so after we approve this contract tonight whatever we come up and agree with we can add a sentence in the contract because I looked at some other uh Count's contracts the criteria of what that assessment looked like as far as evaluating him within 30 days that contract said 60 days but I think it's important that we put that evaluation criteria how we going to evaluate him within 30 days and that can be something we get together as a board and dis
cuss I think we need more than 30 days to do that or 60 whatever I'm just saying at least put it in there because we are moving toward because we haven't had a strategic plan since 2008 or n when I talked to staff this process is happening and so all of the work that we've paid for we need to make sure that's a part of the accountability to the superintendent but now we need a tool to make sure we evaluating him on if we want to take 60 days that's fine with me because and let me say this Miss c
ertain also because one of the reasons I looked at evaluating him like when I came in we evaluated him in in in April well we just got here in Jun in uh we was sworn in in November 2022 we were out 3 weeks for Christmas and then in April I'm evaluating him so now that we're trying to hold accountable about moving these schools June 30 if we get out of June whatever we get out of school we don't have our data back from the state on how those schools are done by July 31st you will have that data t
hat gives a chance for staff Mr Andrew and his staff to look at all that data so by September 1st it just says an is what the policy says by September 1st we will be able to have all of the data because that's what we want we want to make sure we're moving our schools in the right direction then that'll be a better time to evaluate him and so that's why we put that in the contract as well so go ahead Miss certain you say you had one other thing no I was going to rephrase um okay can I just ask a
question about the evaluation part because I think the evaluation part is important it's an important part for this school school year and so I think that in all fairness to a someone who's being evaluated they need to know exactly what they're being evaluated on and it's very general I mean if you ask me I could say well maybe this or that and last year when we did it we all had different things that we were evaluating him on and that's not for anybody it anybody at all that's not a fair evalu
ation and so I do feel like we need to get together and just kind of fine-tune those things and how are we going to measure that and then and it should be something that's mut mutually agreed upon between the board and the superintendent and then he knows you know like well I've got seven or eight months before I'm going to be evaluated this is what this is what they are hoping for me to accomplish but it's not fair to just uh not have the board nor the superintendent sure about what the evaluat
ion is going to be or the tool that's going to be used to assess whether he's been effective for me it was very hard to just especially after just getting elected to sit there and figure out right some of this stuff but I think it needs to be more uh goal oriented and something that we can actually look at data and say okay that yeah yeah that happened no that didn't happen and so anyhow that's all I was going to say about the I think that's what I meant when I said we we have to develop a tool
because we don't have a tool and we but but and as far as initiatives we did have initiatives that we all agreed upon and that's what and I think the evaluation tool maybe we let's get past this and we talk about that cuz there's a section on the annual evaluations right because what I tell you when I was looking at other contracts the criteria and that's why I was saying you all we all saying the same thing the criteria for the assessment shall be established mutually by the board and the super
intendent within how many days other contracts say 30 days some say 60 days of signing this agreement that means after we get a finalized agreement now we're saying we're holding our everybody is on the same pages in the contract that we get together and know what and so he can know what he's being evaluated on but there needs to be an assessment and you can add that one sentence to the contract Madam chair yes ma'am it depends on what this board would decide the evaluation looks like right I be
cause to be punitive totally I'm not in agreement we if we're talking about growth and assessment of our schools that's one thing but I I certainly don't want it to develop into a punitive measure as we talk about once we get Beyond this and start talking about what you want in the evaluation um I think that's very important to look at yeah this this all I'm talking about now is just adding within the contract so Mr super so Mr Andrew knows and we know because Mr certain has said and Miss Abid s
aid they want some type of assessment where we can evaluate him so the criteria for the assessment shall be established mutually by the board and the superintendent within 30 days of him of of him signing this agreement so that way if we want 60 days that's fine but now we both parties are on the same page nor we have to we have we can come up with a workshop or some lady about the evaluation and what that looks like so that we're fair to him and we're not punitive okay Miss saying that's anothe
r language we can offer okay thank you so now back to I think Miss C's going to make a motion okay go ahead so what I was going to do um is I was going to withdraw my motion and let you make your motion but I before we leave the section I think I want I want not I think I want to address the dates in there but I'll withdraw my motion Miss Abbot and you let you go ahead and and read so that Miss green will have it for the minutes okay uh so I move that we offer a base salary of $182,500 with an i
ncentive plan that if the superintendent gets effective or highly effective evaluations for the 2023 2024 school year by a majority of the board he gets a salary increase of $5,000 I also want to make an another uh incentive for the superintendent that if the four following schools Lake Forest shall meta and Rawlings uh improve their their school grade to AC C or better the superintendent will have a salary increase of $2500 for each School each of those four schools that um improves their grade
this is a one-time think I mean it's it's not like if a school goes down right he gets it gets subtracted or anything like that it's just for those four schools if that happens this is the amount of money that will be added to his salary all right Miss green you have is that for just this school year like it has to happen this school year yes just for this school year okay I can I can um but that don't mean the salary is going to go back down if he stays longer I don't want that to be a confusi
on to people no it's an increase to a Sal okay I just want to make sure no cuz you know people everybody thinks differently you got all of that Miss green okay uh is there any um well there has to be a second no I was going to say I thought yeah second you second Miss Okay so we've heard all in all in favor I oh I'm sorry we we we've already had citizen put we've already had it you can say your comments at the end later um all in favor I I all right I'll oppose I just have a procedural question
I'm wondering could we walk through this so that we're not bouncing back and forth and just say like you know section 5.3 does anyone have anything section 5.4 does anyone have anything because otherwise we're going to be bouncing around the contract okay so we are at 6.1 right now well I I have stuff before that because we we're in the middle of this motion now so we'll come back finish okay no we just passed this motion no no no I one other thing I wanted to check changeing that um discussing
that 61 but I thought we were voting on just this right now we just did we passed it I didn't finish asking them I know what I'm doing okay I didn't finish all in favor I I all motion passes okay M sir yeah oh okay so I I wanted to go back um this retroactive pay the I mean the the dates uhuh we're in an existing contract already and if we're going I don't think I I move that this contract be effective um from today going forward February 7th or what how whatever the other date is up top I think
it's February 7th not 6 February 7th and not be retroactively dated back to July 1st uh um are you making that as a motion I move that yeah that's a motion that this be the pay would be affected from February 7th the when this is R um adopted and the term would be from today's dat or February 7th to June 30th 2027 okay is there a second second okay you've heard the motion um Dr Manita you have a comment oh I was ready to vote no yeah my my thing is and I'm going to say why one of the things we
did and and we worked hard on was to make sure our teachers and our our our instructional and our non- instru instructional staff just like you looked at 3 and a half% at the beginning um we retroed all of our employees and I don't think we should treat our superintendent any different that's not that I don't think that's fair that my comment so we have a motion on the floor so now we'll take a vote so and and and I didn't give any commentary I just made the motion so my reasoning is we our supe
rintendent is executive of the organization we he doesn't get you can't have eat out of both hands you can't have the protections and the benefits of being staff and then want I mean of being the executive and then you want all the same things that the people up under you get because he's going to get a bonus here $2,500 per School if the grade improves when he's not in the school he's not there the teachers and those are there they're not getting that same thing so that is my reasoning behind i
t he's already getting um more than what the staff are getting that are there doing the work that are actually there in the schoolhouse versus um you know the bonus they're not getting that so if the if the grade comes up maybe we free up funds and and we're able to consider that but the the staff that are actually there in the schools and you know his salary now I feel that it's we we paid appropriately and we're in a contract already his contract had not expired I didn't feel that there's any
reason to go back to backd and to pay anything he's he's in a contract his current contract does not expire until June 30th of 2024 this year and so we're modifying the contract and I just didn't see there was a need to go back and and backd that and also I Mr Andrew is also you can't compare a superintendent's work to a teacher and that's not to belittle Any teacher but Mr Andrew is the type of a superintendent because I know he when when when when classes are short because we know it's short h
e's teaching when the cafeteria is short he's going and so not only is he doing that and I I just don't think that that's fair he should have an opportunity to have the same treatment as uh all of the other um employees but I don't think that's fair at all because he's responsible for entire district and and and when you look at other counties which I did too I looked at Charlotte County Lee County I looked at a whole lot of counties even with Leon County and I want for the record is as well let
me say this uh Rocky Hannah who is the superintendent in Leon County from 2016 to two to 2022 he did not he agreed on his own not to accept an increase uh because he could he could afford to do that I um know him so he did not so you that's kind of an outlier and you can't really really uh look at that and um but and when we talk about I know somebody had mentioned about the F FRS with the F FRS that's standard 21.13% is standard across any employe anybody will get that that's legislated that's
just law because I I wanted to say that I didn't know if Mr caufman uh was still was still here but I don't think it's fair to treat him uh any difference uh any different because at 190 the retro would have only been $ 8,749 44 not like some people had called and say well that's $15,000 * 6 no it's a formula we've already earned 14 paychecks you take that 15,000 you divide it by 24 it's not a total of uh 15 time 6 or seven months it's retroed thank you those are my comments miss you all still
got your lights on yeah Dr Rockwell so I want to point out that yes our staff members did get retroactive pay but we should have had a salary agreement based on State Statute before October 1st that was supposed to be sent to the state by October 1st we didn't ratify a salary agreement until after several months after that that deadline um and that was because our bargaining teams did not meet over the summer as the executive of this District the superintendent directs our bargaining team they d
id not meet with the acea's bargaining team over the summer we did not have a salary agreement in a timely fashion our employees who quite frankly many of our employees are making poverty wages they are not making a wage that you can survive on and I know that because our board member salaries are less than a beginning teachers so they are making poverty wages they are counting on getting their raises so that they can survive and pay their bills and they had to wait until after Christmas break t
o get that retro pay because our district leader did not make sure that salary negotiations happened in a timely fashion so I I disagree with my colleagues I I think the opposite I think it is unfair to give him retroactive pay when our staff when he is making a hefty salary that many people in our community would be over the moon to make and I am not saying that being a superintendent is an easy job it is incredibly difficult that is why it is a high salary job but to say that we're going to gi
ve retr pay to someone when our staff members who are barely scraping by had to wait until after the winter holidays to get their pay I I just can't see doing that and also as elected officials we get 58 68% for our retirement so that means of the 45,000 we're getting 27,000 put into F FRS for us um all in favor they're retired so they don't but the ones who are not we do so that's why people run for office sometime I guess but I digress Dr mcne all in I took a big cut to do this I'm calling for
the vote Madam chair all in favor I I mean wait a minute what are we saying in favor for she she she does not want it to be retro okay all in favor no for not for not retro I for yeah I all oppose nay nay motion fails so we'll be moving on for that that's 6.1 moving on what other section 6.2 I have something okay which one just tell me which section we'll go back um I am going back to 5.5d if anyone has something before that in the contract I'll defer to them okay oh yeah anybody no okay so in
5.5d it says the superintendent shall have the right to terminate this contract by providing a minimum of 90 days written notice of his intent to resign failure to provide the requested notice shall result in the forfeiture of one half of the sick leave that has accured under this contract at the time of Separation so superintendent Andrew has been with this district for decades this only impacts the sick leave accured from today forward um and only half of that it basically allows him to resign
with no notice and no penalty um he's asking for a three-year contract which is a long contract term and and I know you know the the last superintendent comparable to his situation was Mrs Karen Clark who had also been with the district a long time and had a lot of acred leave and her contract said that when she separated she forfeited all of her ACR leave from all of her time with the district if she did not give notice it did have an exception for severe illness of her or an immediate family
member which I would be fine with um but I I do not understand why this is written this way if the superintendent doesn't intend to stay as long as he and his family are healthy then why is are we looking at a three-year contract um I I can't imagine wanting to have this provision where you can resign with no notice from basically a CEO level position and no penalty just walk away with no notice um so I move that if he fails to provide that we change this last sentence failure to provide the req
uested notice shall result in the forfeiture of all the sick leave that the superintendent has accured except in the situation where he or an immediate family member is ill all right you've heard her motion second okay and and I'm going to speak to this um she for one Karen Clark was not retired Mr Andrew has given 30 years to this District a drop he went to drop now if I'm working on the job for 30 years you ain't going to come take my what I've already earned he's in a new position which is su
perintendent and so therefore being a superintendent moving forward because he's in another position he's already earned his drop so they considered him retired what he's doing now is a new position human in the human sense in being professional you do not take something from somebody who's already earned that that is why so he has the right we need 90 days so if we have to replace somebody some contracts say 30 and 60 that's not enough time if we need to get a be get an interum but to say and e
ach superintendent is different just CU we've been filing the contract contract is different she was not retired Mr Andrew is retired so you don't just take all of what he's already earned because he had 30 years he's already given to this District Mr Andrew I saw your light first yes Madam chair if I may just add a little bit to the discussion since this is uh been negotiated from the days I would just say that sentence should be removed from the contract I have a call colleague in Hillsboro Co
unty that's punitive in my opinion I have a colleague in Hillsboro County who has a 60-day notice clause in his contract period and he's uh compensated for all of his sick and vacation and so and my comment is that I've come to work throughout my career I've chose to come to work and I've been blessed to come to work so that's just the way it's worked out but I I just don't miss to miss or schedule vacations when kids are are uh in session in our 180-day calendar so um but I would say that is is
there's superintendent contracts currently active and that can be pulled up and looked at while we're in the meeting that in Hillsboro County it's a 60-day notice no punitive measure in the contract for earned time sick or vacation thank you madam chair right thank you um I have Mr Delaney I saw your light okay Miss Ser thank you um so for me I I had this had this marked but I didn't I had it marked because and when I read this and I want to say again when we have things in contracts and their
guard rails that are put in to protect the district as just as he's pursuing and he's used um the staff attorney which I think is highly I don't I don't think it should have been she should have used been a um the staff attorney should have been used to work on this agreement here because she's representing um the superintendent and I think she should he should have hired his own attorney but um there the things the provisions that are in here are in here to protect the district and the taxpayer
s and I can appreciate that and and I understand that Mr Andrew has a lot of lead because as he said he's come to work and he's been blessed with good health and that's good I I was in that same way but I do I'm I don't I I can agree with my colleague and what she's saying is that you in here there are other um areas he wants 20 weeks of severance I'm okay with that that's a norm where there's Severance in there in other parts there are there's a time period in where um he has he has to be given
notice to correct deficiencies so to ask for protection for the district is not out of the ordinary this is not like she you know you're something that you would you would put up put put um out there that's to trip up anyone if he was Return to to decide to leave at the last minute and we have to scramble we're we're in this predicament of having to inter rooms back to back because our superintendent Miss Clark was terminated as you know um that was one of the first actions that that when you c
ame on the board miss miss mcgar that you wanted to do we all voted on that's correct we did were right we all voted on it but don't I think don't act as if we have a situation where we have to um bow down and acquest to everything that is being requested Us by the superintendent because we don't know who would apply for the job because we never open the search you you know we if you open the search and folks know that they can come in and negotiate a salary we don't know what apps we would get
so um and there there are plenty of of counties who have had searches during this contentious period um since 2020 and and they've gotten um qualified candidates so I i' I've accepted that he's here and there there will be no change in leadership I've accepted that but um the the fact of the matter is is the organization we say we need change and we need to improve but um everyone wants to keep drinking from the same Fountain but again I'll stay with this particular thing here I think the guard
rails for to protect the district um should be in there and you as our chair having sat with the attorneys and the superintendent had a and my view had a responsibility to negotiate on behalf of the board collectively as well as the citizens of the the county to protect protect us as well so and we did just that and it's only fair that we we were out of we were without a staff attorney for a while Mr Andrew is is um superintendent is part of the staff he's in administrator so she handles that si
de Mr Delaney is the board and so what you do when you're trying to collaborate and make sure you're being fair to both parties because we're all about these people being okay with serving our students we did that and she had every right to represent him okay if nothing else let's move on she she put a motion all in favor can we repeat the motion she wants them to for okay the mo the the mo the motion is uh that he would forfeit all of his sick lead that he's earned since he's been here in the d
istrict okay all in favor I all oppos n nay okay 5.6 anything well I'm sorry I um I skipped 5.4 okay let's go back I was looking at the new contract and I didn't have it marked term of the agreement I would like to move that we change the dates to the date to June 30th 2026 okay so a two-year contract instead of a three okay second okay it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all in favor I I all right 5 all right moving on 5.7 anything 6.2 6. three 6.4 6.5 um okay 6.5
go ahead Madam chair yes M chair yes um at 6.1 since the motion by Miss Abbott has been to change the contract to end in 202 40 what year is this today 26 that needs to change also because it says 27 okay so just as a point of order to make sure we're all 2-year contract is the me your term is mentioned in 6.1 okay we'll make that change got it Miss certain 6.5 6.5 the life insurance yeah I think um I like the move that we put we add back the the Clause that was um deleted as determined by the b
oard re premium is reasonable as determined by the board because there's no reasonable is not defined in there what what's so that and as was in a prior contract it was the clause in there that insurance policy will be purchased if he's insurable and the premium is reasonable as determined by the board so I move that we add back the phrase as determined the cost as determined by the board reasonable cost as determined by the board second second moved in properly second on the said motion is ther
e any discussion hearing none all in favor I I motion carries 6.6 6 point Mr Dr Rockwell um 6.7 6.7 okay um 6.7 B um the superintendent is already getting FRS and drop I do not think the board should be contributing to an additional retirement account um we do not do that for any other employees so I would move to eliminate that entire paragraph second been moved in properly second it is there any other discussion I have yes if I understand colleague um um Dr Rockwell are you saying that you wou
ld like to eliminate because he is in drop and as you know that stops and based on what I saw out on social media we you've already paid the help me Mr burette the 36 Mr 36 and so what we're paying now would be 3,17 $5 is that correct what you what Mr buret before you begin talking what she's asking for just go ahead and explain the benefits that when you're in drop the state consider you retired right go ahead Mr burkat him chair if I may before Mr burkat does if if I may um yeah with what's be
en proposed by the board of 182 th000 500 500 the 10% would then be not 19,000 but would be 18,250 just for clarification um the retirement that would actually be an increase based on the raise of of uh whatever that is 72 five right no 70 what is that 75 um is $175 basically so that's $1,575 is the additional that would be paid on what's currently paid and then you know the salary increases 7500 um that's 27,000 325 so just to clarify uh the 10% for the 403b is that and I would say just for the
record we had a former superintendent that received 20% um in the last 20 years and in the last last 10 years we had one received 15% my request standard in the agency we won't get anybody we even we do a search if you're not paying a full three Bill 457 these people are not are not coming um Mr barquette do you you still want him to explain Dr mcne it's not it's it's not needed if everyone understands what the superintendent just stated yeah okay I I thought that my colleagues were thinking um
the drop amount drop stops the drop stops and so I I cannot figure out why they're saying that so um I I I guess I will need an explanation of what you mean what what's what is about theop expl it so the community can understand that's why I'm asking when when a person enters drop their retirement is calculated and set yeah I know that okay and then uh there's no more retirement benefit acred to the superintendent so the 403b is a supplement uh in annuity that is the board would contribute to a
dd a little bit to his retirement his personal retirement account because there is no additional benefit for his continuing to work if he was not in drop and he was in a regular uh uh position probably Senior Management class he would continue to ACR retirement benefits but since he's retired his his uh monthly retirement check is set and he's like he is retired it's just that money goes into an annuity this annuity 403b is just to supplement that because he's not gaining any any benefit through
F FRS I have a question um for may I ask Mr so there as long as he's in drop and he's working now and his retirement is going into the account there is still a cost to the district for that yes ma'am that's that is what that is my explanation to the citizens that that we saying the cost is is this year 21% 14% no no 21% yeah 21 it changes yeah no drop drop that's only that's only on the sheet that I have that does not add anything to to Mr but everybody gets that any employee any employee is St
ate legislated any employee is going to get that 21.13% all everybody that's just state that that that that's something you can't control that's set by the state that's legislated so do we no I'm I'm not saying I'm I am not denying that he has an earn drop and understanding what I am looking at is the cost to the district which is nothing M Mr bro we pay 21% of his his salary am I am I not interpreting that correctly Mr Burkett that is correct but I think with Mr mcra is alluding to every employ
ee in the state who's in drop their district is paying no no I I understand that but the thing is we're negotiating a contract this is salary and benefits so whatever we're paying in salary we also have to pay the state in benefits and to set up a second retirement account um a 403b is a second fund discretionary fund that the the district is going to fund at 10% that is an additional cost to the district so okay that's my point so right here is there any other points Dr Rodwell I also want to s
ay that the statement that he is not acre any retirement during drop is a little bit misleading so yes the increase in salary is not going to impact his the amount of money deposited into his drop account but he is currently getting a salary this salary from the district while also getting his retirement check deposited into an account that's how drop works and yes anyone in drop earned it but are we going to give an extra 10% to everybody else who's currently in drop are we going to give that e
xtra 10% to all of our other employees I mean I'd love it if we could but we don't have that kind of money so why are we going to give an extra 10% we are not in the same fiscal situation that we were a decade ago and additionally when I looked back at the more recent employee who got a 403b it was because that person had never worked in Florida before and had no history with f FRS so and when you leave if you're only here for a few years as a superintendent you're not going to have any retireme
nt account at all basically because it takes seven eight years sorry eight years to vest into Florida retirement so it it's totally different situations and to say that he's not getting anything while in drop like you're getting more while you're in drop than than you got before you were in it and that's just how drops Works drop you retired he earned he worked 30 years so anybody who retires in the F FRS State of Florida system you you you you you you're going to get 21.13% because that's the r
ate and that's what the state has legislated no that yes okay we going to move on and take a vote called a question somebody it's f of us okay now we moving on she's called the question that means we move toward voting all in favor all I okay all opposed nay nay moving on 7.1 7.2 is just membership due 7.3 um 72 something in okay go ahead Miss certain the I move that we put restore the $3,000 per year l limit on dues and memberships that was removed okay you're making that a motion second all ri
ght it's been moved and properly seconded that we put in a $3,000 limit all right is there any discussion on that and I put that back the board has a limit on its travel and I do think that should not just be cart Blan I don't blun that our leader is traveling at um discretion okay all in favor I I she just wants to limit back that's 3,000 that's been in previous contracts all in favor I motion carries 7.3 7.4 8 point number eight number eight is where I was talking about or doing the evaluation
you can add about the criteria what I read that should be a nine with nine yeah for evaluations the criteria for the assessment shall be established mutually by the board and the superintendent within 30 days of signing this this contract that I mean 60 days so we talked about that way we can meet to discuss what that tool looks like can I get a motion for that so moved is there a second second it's been moved and properly seconded you can give that credit to uh Dr McNeely I I think I second it
I don't matter I thought I heard Dr MC too second okay okay one of y'all second by Dr mcne all in favor I okay motion carries uh number 10 number 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 I think that's the he all right woo all of that has been but don't we have to approve it as amended so now we got approve it as amended right okay so now that we've made it through all of the Amendments now we need to approve uh superintendent Andrew's contract with all of these amendments and changes that you all have heard and w
e've walked through is there a motion so moved there's second it's been moved and properly seconded on the say motion is there any discussion yes okay Dr Rell I could vote Yes on this contract in the name of board solidarity and I do recognize that Mr Andrew is going to be our superintendent but I made a campaign promise to my constituents that I would have a search because we can't know know for sure if Mr Andrew is the best candidate out there as one of our community members said unless we ope
n this up to a search and I am not going to go back on my campaign promise that alone should be enough reason for my decision but I'm going to explain a little more I've heard a lot of people discuss stability and bring up the fact that we've had seven superintendents in 10 years which I would note includes interim superintendents who were only in for a couple of months either way stability is not having a high o turnover of the qualified hardworking dedicated staff who run this District stabili
ty is not leaving critical staff positions empty for months on end we went over six months without a staff attorney leaving policies not up to dat with statute we went over a year without a chief of operations leaving a gap in our executive cabinet we currently have multiple positions empty in our data analytics team and as Mr guilin pointed out in his comment we have not received disaggregated academic achievement data since the summer we currently have one very dedicated staff member doing bot
h the job of student services and exceptional student education even though that job was split into two by the board about a year ago that is not stability stability is not announcing major changes late on Friday afternoons such as the change to the location of the ibpyp program the numerous changes to the resoning maps that ultimately didn't pass or the example of trend reports for tomorrow's board workshop being posted when I was in my car on the way here this evening that is not stability sta
bility is not making major decisions without stakeholder input as you heard about Williams we need need to make sure that the staff members the parents the students the community members are included to have stability stability is not leaving us until February before Esser and ARP sundown in about five months to determine what our plan is financially and instructionally moving forward without that extra funding that's not stability stability is not a lack of communication about important things
going on in the district for instance I staff members and community members worked hard to update our lgbtq guide it was published without any announcement our book procedures were updated without any explanation to the public about how they would be implemented and why they were updated so I've received numerous questions from people who misunderstood the intent of that update that's not stability I also want to talk about progress when this board was elected we met in a publicly noticed meetin
g to set priorities one of our top priorities was rezoning 15 months later later we have no resoning plan that is not progress one of our other priorities was strategic planning 15 months later we haven't completed the strategic planning process that was supposed to be completed in the fall that's progress but very slow progress we have three schools that moved out of turnaround and I am thrilled by that I spend a lot of time at williger and I've spent time talking to Mr at Ida wild and I've vis
ited alacha and those are great achievements but I want to point out that that was last year's work we have since lost an incredibly talented turnaround principal who supported that work we've had a change in our chief of teaching and learning and we don't have because we don't have any dis aggregated data I cannot say whether that change is for the better or not I have no data we have lost many of our instructional coaches our professional development team was cut in half and those are people w
ho supported the work of turning those schools around and now the state is considering passing legislation that would change how School turnaround reset works so currently we celebrate a school moving to a because they reset even if they fall back to a d they start back at step one of school turnaround and we're not worried about an external operator or charter school coming in but if this passes an Idle Wild does not maintain a sea this year we will be looking at that we will be looking at anot
her external operator like we're looking at for Lake Forest and that's not progress as Mr gilin mentioned because we had a change in test growth was not included the goal posts for school grades were very different so we even school grades improving is not the progress we wish it was but I am happy that school grades have improved progress is not eliminating most of the instructional staff at our e at our successful alatua e school and sending FTE to Florida Virtual School at a time when we are
extremely concerned about losing FTE to Charter Schools and vouchers especially when that school was granted an extra administrative position that has not been eliminated I also want to mention board collaboration and cooperation and unity because like I said I could have voted I could decide to vote Yes on this in the name of unity but cooperation in unity would have meant having a workshop to discuss this in detail not rushing to pass a new contract when there is an existing contract that runs
through June 30th of this year it leaves me to wonder why the rush perhaps it's because of deadlines to contribute back pay to a retirement account for the 2023 year I don't know for sure I've asked for the full cost of the compensation packages for the contracts that we've seen and I've never gotten that that's not cooperation and collaboration so even though I recognize that Mr Andrew is going to be our superintendent I cannot in good conscience vote in favor of this contract thank you Miss T
hon thank you um Madam chair and I want to add because there's been this narrative around going around and just make known in case we we have lots of people who have not attended meetings on the on the whole um but when we needed an interim superintendent uh when Dr Simon was terminated I reached out to Mr Andrew and asked if he was interested in serving as interim so this about me not liking him or not wanting to work with him I don't know where that came I asked for his resume even went as far
as to help revise the resume put his name forward in a public meeting and advocated vigorously to get three votes because there was another staff um another board member who bought another person's name for it and at that time we were a split board as well but we bought him on an in an interim role I've worked with Mr Andrew as a board member because at that time I was not chair I transitioned and was elected chair of the board and now again as a board member but when I was chair I met with him
twice a month to um plan the meetings I met one-on-one with him I made numerous suggestions and tried to collaborate I suggested then um coordinating the orientation for my new colleagues the new board members that were coming on I encourage um Mr Andrew to complete tasks that were authorized by the board I never went with my own request for information my my advocacy has been for the schools that have been low performing and for us to do the things that the board um approved and one thing and
he he he will if he will be truthful with us he' confirmed that I I accused him of subverting the will of the board because the previous under the previous board we voted to um start the the strategic planning we had an RFP had been issued and scored um but it was never come back and every time I'd meet with him I'd say you know that needs to be on and it was even after my new colleagues came on I had to bring that so um I can and will work with him it's my responsibility as a board member to wo
rk with the superintendent to build positive relationship but his his responsibility as being the superintendent is to work with the board that he has and it's that does not mean just a few of the members um I was really really disappointed to hear when we had um we were in Master board training which was like a team building type thing I was really disappointed when the comment was made because he he missed several meetings one it was I thought very excusable because we had a bomb threat out of
school but to say oh he's not here because his feelings were hurt somebody people need to something to the fake somebody needs to apologize to him because of something that was said and I just think our our leader had has to be with us but my commitment is to the students um of this County and the success of the superintendent is the success of the leads to success of our students we um the former superintendent um that permanent superintendent that we had um she was was not retained um after a
nnouncing her retirement and that was because the the community didn't feel or you know that she was for the success of the students and um I have to agree with um your your words colleague um Dr Rockwell about stability I I just have to ask how long do we wait and and we have stability that is what um myself and many community members even before I was uh elected we accused the board um and the leadership at that time of everybody going status quo because it was easy to do that but the students
and the performance of the students was not improving and so I when I as I said to my colleagues on November 7th when we were voting to on a a path forward and the turnaround step for Lake Forest is do we have the commitment I posted in this this graphic and some other data that's publicly available that I posted about the trend of the grades for Lake Forest um do we have the commitment to and and we're going to do the work and be focused on improving that because every year that we go on in th
e name of stability and for continuity for the adults their children that are suffering and I I've I've I've heard as a citizen and now as a board member parents be um blamed I've heard poverty be blamed and those things do have their place but I've never heard the district to take responsibility for how we feel students I haven't heard that and when we go with stability and no change we telling those we're telling those families that what happens with your child we're saying we're committed to
the success of every student but we're our actions are not following that because like it or not and this is an ugly truth there there there are two different systems of Education that's happening in this District it's two different systems and I'll never forget my first meeting at Williams Dustin Sims from the Department of Education he said it he says the separate and unequal education is very apparent I was thinking it but I didn't say it but I sat in a meeting with someone from doe and that
is what he said and I and I hold hold fast to that because that's what what we saw that was happening the students in the major program there were a lot of Subs long-term Subs teachers that were not um delivering standards based instruction while the teachers that were in the magnet program program they those those kids were were getting a higher quality of instruction that was the separate and unequalness one part of the school was very was was very well lit and cool we went on the hall where t
he major program kids were the floors were dirty and the lights were out and I that what we were told was that that was a different janitor but I I digress but so we can get and be so focused on stability it has nothing you know nothing personal against him but my commitment was to when the new board came as I said in making my argument for having him was we would do a search and but we we are where we are um I will will and will work work wholeheartedly um collaboratively with him with my colle
agues um for us to move forward but there's just too many things in this particular contract that um I in in the the name of of um Unity also can't support but but I do support the the role of the or the organization and I am committed to um advocating for improved student outcomes and and I just want to say just one other thing my my colleague um Miss Abbott the year round school I am I I think the model could work and have some benefit but I think we've eliminated school choice for some some f
amilies and that in that area because we put two put both schools as year round and in effect in effect have have eliminated the choice for those parents to choose for their kids if that schedule doesn't work for their family they have to apply for a zoning exemption is what the paper said today so that they can go to a different school and those parents may not have the capability of getting their student to a different school that has a traditional 180 day um calendar and that that that I know
we had to make application for that but I do think um like the citizen said about a community Workshop we need to be having some meetings with the community on and the parents to get feedback on that um and how this would impact them in a path forward but to have two schools within um that um you know mile and a half or whatever the distance is between them I I I would have rather them be given the option to say you can if this year round schedule doesn't work for your family and you want to ma
intain a traditional um traditional 180 day they would have that but I think the rolling that out and and announcing things like that to the public in in a manner where it's like it's a done deal that was something that did not sit well with me when I was a citizen it it it just like you're coming to us to ask us our opinion when you've already made up your mind um of what you're going to do but um we we hopefully we can go forward and we can you you know Dr Rock will mention the financial chall
enges that we have but so we got um some hard work to ahead of us and some retooling of our organization to make sure we meet the needs of the students that we have um you know starting this new program I you know with it being um announced that it would be open up a new school site and then suddenly changed after um um on the 19th we met that it would be at Williams it I just wonder like why what what are the financial concerns because it was almost said that we didn't have any but I think we a
s a board we didn't um give directive on creating a new educational program and he has not shared superintendent Andrew has not shared with the board the cost of that the the cost in year one the cost of your um year two three or four and as I said to him one onone resources are limited and starting a new Pro program there um since it is in the magnet category if there's cap space in the mill some of those expenditures can be paid from from the mill but I'm looking at a school um you know Idol w
ild that came out a turnaround and they have just that money for one year of it being in a situation where they may not be able to be able to um have the funds to keep the supports that they have in place and they may to maintain or sustain and build upon the work that Mr has has been doing over there him and his his team have been doing in that school building and so while um I started a new program is a good thing or that the IB has its positives I think not knowing the financial implications
of that and getting that to the board will we could sit down and really plan out how we're going to go forward and and be able to serve all students because we don't want there to be a competition for resources because it already seems as if if that is the way it is um right now that those who have have and our Advanced students have more funding to do things and to um than what students that are um in major programs that may be in low performing environments so I'm hoping that we can turn a new
leaf and go in a different direction or in a in a direction that continues to build upon the success that those schools that came out of turnaround has um that have had so thank you thank you Dr McNeely Madam chair I was going to make some statements about the current superintendent because I sit on this Das through before the new four of you came on board and had been a part of the interims and the permanence superintendence and when I look at when people ask me why is our board um in fact a p
erson asked me that today at the bank why is our board meetings such a reality show and I looked at the individual who saying this in front of all of the people at truest and I said you must not have watched recently because we are certainly trying hard all five women are trying hard to unify what's going on in this District but when I hear the distress from my colleagues tonight I don't want to come back and unsay all of the things that have been stated that's so wrong but we can't ever get som
e positive stuff to come out of our mouths why not I asked that question I'm so disappointed so very disappointed that all of the things that have been pointed out Miss certain Dr Rockwell I see you writing I'm not trying to blame you or her or any of us but at some point in time the citizen need to understand some of the good things that have happened in this District all we give out are the failing schools not performing um the Strategic plan that's not completed resoning that did not get comp
leted or finished there are so many other things that we should be doing and I'm sick and tired I promise some people I would not speak about us but it's time that the five of us face each other and say privately not out here but privately what's going on I'm so disappointed so disappointed and if I'm looking on on the DI here I'm saying it because I feel that it needs to be said and I haven't said it we are all Grown Folk up here and I cannot control any of you let alone myself right now but I
just cannot go to my house tonight and have not said what needs to be said Say What You Need to Say say it to him you all have opportunities to go in every single day that's the open policy that we have and if you can't get in you can come back after five and his vehicle will still be here and you can see him then but my gosh every time I look around we've got to say the negative things about Alara County Public Schools I believe that we have a good school system if the five of us would work tog
ether and be for for some reason it doesn't matter that you're not going to vote for the contract we heard you but out of all of the things you stated I didn't hear one good thing that we have done as a board and as a superintendent I cannot believe it colleagues what is the matter with us I'm I'm at a I'm at a loss I truly am at a loss okay because there are things that are going on for our children in this District that have benefited the children there are things that we still need to do and
we all know that I'm not talking about the past nine or 10 superintendents that I've been a part of I'm talking about this gentleman and yes I second Mrs C's vote when she recommended that we select Mr Andrew but to say that we are going to do a search we promise I'm not new so you're talking about for other people who wanted to go forward and I said I would go along with the search but when an individual comes in and proves themselves and works hard to do that and to have made some accomplishme
nts not every single Le thing but some accomplishments give the individual a credit my gosh I'm an educator Dr Rockwell is an educator Miss Abbott is an educator the other two people who sit on this board were not in schools in the classroom it takes a tremendous amount of work hear me out I put 30 plus years 35 years in this school system and I know where we've been and where we've come from but if we don't say it and I hear the chairperson saying all the time marketing is the key yes marketing
is but when you mix negative with all that we're trying to do in this District where do you think the public is going to lean toward Madam chair you said calm down it's okay I'm I've calmed down M but I am so disappointed so disappointed because we should be a able to do better and all of that training we supposedly had and all of those workshops we go to at fsba oh my goodness it's the time that we've spent I'm sorry superintendent Andrew I'm sorry to the citizens who are listening to me rant
right now but I had to say it because every time we come to a board meeting there is negativity over and over and over again if y'all would just say well these are the things we're not doing well but here are some things that we are I wish we could get to that point I wish and someone wrote to me and said it's insane that I don't want to blame staff and the super super intendent when those individuals were working for this school system I didn't blame them either I'm done Madam chair right but I
I had to get off my chest because it's too much negativity and students watch us as well I had a student today say that oh and and oh he's still here but he'll get chance to speak and and I said it was late and I knew he had to go to school but I thought he had eased out I am so sorry I am so sorry and and that he is seeing what we see and it's okay and that we and how we act we we've got to change that we've got to thank you Dr it's okay I want apologize you don't have to you don't have to lis
ten citizens I'm apologizing to you I I I sincerely apologize to you but I had to say what I needed to say and that I've been holding in too long the negativity has got to stop and let's work together and one of one of the things thank you Dr McNeely and I'm going to make a few comments but I'm good one of the things I looked at um and I say this all the time and I respect Dr McNeely because she is has a years of experience has been through all levels of this district and she's seen it all I was
22 years of age when I came to Gainesville and one of the first things I did I'm 54 now was volunteering the schools and some of the same issues that we have now uh were there then back in 1992 and probably out of this board Dr mcne would tell you I am the one who attended probably for the last before I was elected for 17 18 years I attended board meetings I came to everyone I volunteered in the schools so I know a lot of the things that uh have not been done um and I have to go back to the yea
r when my son graduated but also I had to get a young man uh graduated as well who was told on April SE I think April 4th of that year uh 2013 that he wasn't graduating and graduation was June 7th of the same year Miss Butler who I who is here one of the greatest tutors in NAA County who won't mind saying her her son made a perfect score I think it was on the SAT and she came in to help and tutor four young men that I knew if I didn't help them graduate uh they would be somewhere in jail or prob
ably dead and one of the things I take is education extremely serious because all of my kids are out of a lotu County Public Schools I don't have to do that they're out but I've had a passion and I must say since I've returned since 2020 when you and I know how it can be when you're criticized you're lied on people say all kind of things about you till they get to know you uh but I'm a very focused individual I don't get caught up in the sidebar this is not politics to me and it bothered me when
people would say oh you all need to get your board together well I must say it's not all of us because one of the things when I look that as an elected official I'm not going to people can't say they see me arguing back and forth with people in public I'm not going to do that because my job is to serve children my focus has always been on children those who truly know me here in ela County and I look at the amount of time that people spend on Facebook the average person spent 38 30.8 minutes 30
.8 minutes on Facebook just imagine if every person who was employed in elu County whether it was a city the county wherever you work if you volunteered for 30.8 minutes just like we have a mass meeting coming up when our schools we wouldn't even have to worry about SI schools State Improvement schools but from 2000 since 1992 when I was volunteering to where I am now and the staff would tell you it's not my job to hire fire staff I'm governance it's Mr Andrew job but those who are watching and
listening those who are in this room when I come around I come around with positivity how y'all doing today are you okay helping with a smile did the choo choo train when I start out because the morale is low after covid children are struggling one of the reasons you you know I didn't think we need to go for reone and all of us up here on this board ran on the Gap that is the main thing we ran on was closing the Gap but when you have schools within schools that's hard to do we're at a time now w
here Mr Andrew since July 2023 has been able to hire people on his team because some of the people we talk about this contract but some of the people we wanted to consider for interim and and that terminology from what we've learned from our attorney that's not a word but we still use it we wanted to hire people and I and and this is important for me to say 2016 when Dr Roberts was here that's the last time your school grades just taking Lake Forest moved 2016 but some of those people that were
in the district at that time time we wanted to consider for interim now I'm just and I I don't get into who it is I'm talking about results if a person has been in a position from 2016 to 2023 and there has been no movement would you consider that person for interal I'm I'm there's been no results because the schools have not moved that that's his job whoever the superintendent to figure out how to make it move it's wrong for us to get involved on who the superintendent hires and fires that's ho
w we get ourselves in trouble but it disheartens me that every time you turn around to look on Facebook and our children are watching it seems that this staff this year they can never do anything right but you know what Mr Andrew manon's March of 22 he inherited the staff 22 23 school year so you one of the first things you do as a great leader is I got to look at how do I build a morale one of the things the Bureau State Improvement said was they how we I said what do you think it was to help u
s must move the schools because you had a leader come in and say we got to change the climate we got to change the environment the first thing is the expectation that every single kid can learn that has not been the expectation Miss Abbott talks about it all the time because she's done it every single kid matters that has not been happening and then when I sit here and I hear all this stuff this man had hadn't done this he hadn't done that he had done that I'm saying well my God from 22 to where
we are in 24 we only talking about two years and he's only had a chance to put his team in place since July of 2023 and then you have people who have worked for the district who quit and then all of a sudden they got all these things they can offer to us well we needed that when you were in the district and so tonight I I could not just like Dr MCN I could not leave tonight without saying we didn't even earn our Master board because our Behavior as elected official and people say to me all the
time thank you Miss McGrath for staying above The Fray everybody's not going to like you and that's not what it's about for me the seats are chosen by the citizen but my job is to be committed to the children and since I've been on the board I have tried to build morale I have been positive I go around to the schools I talk to the children I'm every day you can see me posting something positive because I believe in marketing that is important and one of the first things that came on this board s
afety yes my background is with group homes with developmental disable I'm trained in safety first and when I saw these schools and children were so out of control and they all have their reasons for that you got to address that if you're going to address be the achievement Gap you cannot they all go hand in hand the attendance this is the first time and I've been volunteering in the school so nobody can tell me different that you now have staff who are doing walk through all of the schools yes
we have seven it's not just about one school we have seven three have come out a turnaround all three of them have to be sustained but you know what Mr Burkett and Mr Andrew who is Mr Andrew staff 40 years of experience with finances he has told me that our finances are okay I'm not I'm the boy he's not going to let us fall but our teachers we did what we could into our instructor staff we gave it to it and we gave it retroactive because it's about the people but if you can't lead with empathy a
nd you're always critical every time you turn around people get to the point to say what if every day I'm calling Mr Andrew and saying well you I need this I need this I need this and then you put me in the paper all the time for what take the politics out of it let it go because our role is to see about children every day you get and I told people don't don't I don't care what's on Facebook because I'm sitting in this seat I know what's going on I I challenge any one of you all every day go vol
unteer in the school come and ask Mr Andrew he has open door policy come walk with him see what it takes every day and then when you when people leave because they don't want change and they take stuff and a person has to start all over you don't cre our job as board members is not to create a hostile environment and that has happened and we must stop and it's not when people say to you Dr Maga it's not everybody on this board because because those who know D MRA I have been very supportive but
it does get disheartening because people are human they're human and sometime we we can say this I like they what do I say to staff all the time I don't want to teach I don't I'm just a change agent to make sure I'm putting the right policies in place today we had a wonderful day in a lot County we had 40 members of the public come together to talk about other options for their students and you know what everybody there you have to give your name your organization and your why in less than a yea
r you have a new barber in class in East Side you got Junior Achievement back we were chosen by the state for year round schools some Miss Abbott has just been talking about talking about do we have all the answers no because you know from Tallahassee they giv so much information we have to wait until we get to the rest of the information and we talk about what we could have done differently before Mr Andrew got here we had $90 million in answer funds 90 million I would have been I have mentors
who Mentor me find your students help the families get these students caught up we put we should have put all of our money in catching up and hiring people but we didn't do that and then you talk about strategic planning this is the first time we've had this type of strategic planning and it didn't happen with the previous boy because politics was involved so it's not the fault of him he works for us but one thing about it I'm passionate about why I'm serving this is not a campaign speech for me
this is something I've been doing forever for those who truly know me but to criticize and always ostr excise and be mean to people that is not professional Behavior that's becoming of of any elected official you don't get on Facebook and do that because my job now that I'm chair I have to make sure no liability comes to this board cuz see this here this mouth and this tongue will get us in trouble every time there's something you don't respond and just because you see something on Facebook don
't believe everything thing that you see you ask because when you talk to the children they love Mr Andrew first you got to have a heart to do this and when I talk to seven or eight different superintendents I wouldn't come to elu County and because of what they've seen and some of us up here on this board people have refused jobs just like tonight this is something different athletes celebrate kids that is what we're supposed to be doing but when we get on Facebook and we're talking and talking
and not and I listen to some of these people talking not one day have they been in a board meeting have they volunteered in a school it's not fair so as we move forward to my colleagues I hope we are all going to work together stay in our lanes because this is the only time we can meet in the public I don't have no grudge or nothing against anybody but I am going to speak up for what's right because that's me V PK see them here tonight doing a great job but we start early catch these kids up ea
rly expand upon what they want to do and make sure on the right path that needs to be our Focus take out I can work with anybody I may not like a person every day but if they voting and doing something what's best for kids that is my focus but to sit here and criticize open door policy the next superintendent you get in the state of Florida nine superintendents have resigned you know why because critical race the theory book banning all of these things that we made political that's those are adu
lts going back and forth what about the children there are things that have been done wrong but you don't hear me calling people names mistreating people and we cannot put people out there we are supposed to be professional and so tonight I'm glad we've gotten through this contract process sorry my colleagues can't vote for it but Mr Andrew compared to other superintendent he has had 30 30 years of experience now 33 previous superintendents we gave $15,000 raise in six months never engaged with
the community and that's a problem people want to see you show up that's the first thing you have to do but Mr Andrew you you've done great things and I want to to tell you that tonight cuz see when I lay my head down ton night I can sleep because I know what I have done to help and move this District forward here in ela County so tonight I think we did a good job compromising on it but I had to say tonight and I'm so grateful to Mr Andrew and his staff because you all are working hard these peo
ple who have taken on these jobs from July 23 to 24 Trust me they are working overtime trying to clean up a system a 30-year system I'm sorry people retired and said n you here tonight that has been the same and that's a reality and when you trying to clean up it's not going to come in two minutes it's going to take some time but I can tell you we're moving cuz if we're not moving people complaining if you move people complaining but we going to stay the middle of the road and we going to do wha
t's best for children thank you those are my comments I don't see anything else I'm going to move on now we're we already voted didn't we no all in favor yes all in I thought we voted all in favor I I all oppos n 32 Miss green thank y'all all right moving on to um the renaming of the district office my colleagues each one of you all got a policy you know we had some letters or reports that came to us about the book Banning I mean not book Banning the renaming of the district office here in honor
of Mr Chestnut so it when we talked about it you all were provided with the policy and in the policy it gives you options you can either number seven talks about we could go ahead and name it or we can put together ad hoc committee so after looking at the party uh um policy I would like to see what's your pleasure because we want to make sure we're transparent and give the community a chance um to have input on this so I wanted to bring it back before us um I support the formation of an ad hoc
committee okay um it's not that I do not support naming the district office for Mr Chestnut um it's just I think that that no matter who gets chosen there will be someone in the community who disagrees we all know this but if we follow a transparent process with Community input we that can't be a reason for them to descent and so I think that if we want Community buyin this is the best path forward all right so you want to make that in anybody uh recommendation so do you need a motion need a mot
ion I move that we form an ad hoc committee to consider the renaming of the district offices based on policy based on policy 7250 thank you okay so I public with not second by Dr McNeely all in favor I I all opposed thank you motion carries all right moving on to the adoption of the proposed new administrative job descriptions the second reading Miss seagull thank you madam chair uh the board held a first reading on December 5th 2023 and a public hearing on January 16th 2024 for proposed new adm
inistrative job descriptions and the new educational support professional job description for the student services department the facilities Department the transportation department and the food and nutrition services department these proposed new job descriptions are set forth in the attached statement of purpose SL effect and shown on the uh in the attached proposed job descriptions the superintendent recommends that the board approve approve the proposed new administrative job descriptions an
d the new educational support professional job uh descriptions as prevented this is the second reading all right so is there a motion so moved move by Dr brell a second second it's been moved and properly seconded on the said motion is there any discussion hearing none all in favor oh second read I'm sorry okay uh Taylor [Music] giin good evening Madam chair board couple of things I just wanted to look on here too um as I think it relates to to new job descriptions is looking at the existing job
descriptions we have I know board chair you've mentioned before call for Esser we have have several positions currently being funding on Esser um I would just encourage the board as we think about new job descriptions to make sure there's a really clear plan for all of the different roles from the family aison specialist to the high do tutors like is that a role we're continuing on using and if if so how are we going to account for it and does that make us think differently about potentially pu
tting new job descriptions into the role um I think something that's also related to job descriptions and to some that I think were just made by our board member um I think I want to acknowledge that I think my observation is I'm pretty sure I'm one of the only former staff members that got a chance to come up and talk tonight I got the sense and I'm not asking you to respond that my contributions to this organization while I was here was brought into question and I think my offering is I'd aske
d the board to stick to the same civility pledge that they speak to my name was wasn't said but I felt like my contributions were brought into question and I think I'd also like to point out because I think this relates to the work environment you're talking about I think having to hear an elected official blame those who quit for being in a hostile work environment for creating the hostile work environment is exactly one of the reasons I chose to leave and I think now I'm excited in the new rol
e that I'm in that I get to continue supporting the school district and the success of our students outside of those capacities thank you thank you okay is there a phone calls okay hearing none all right all in favor I I all right motion carried all right moving on to the final order no emergency uh add on no no we did that already uh final order of the book challenge case is Miss morale Mor Miss seagull yes the the recommendation of the superintendent is that the uh School Board enter a final o
rder approving the hearing officer's recommendation as presented Dr marule is the objector and she is here okay um to make a presentation okay um Mr Delaney um are there time constraints well all all I can I address that okay well all School Board you all have the copy of um Miss Mor maru's documents including her specific objections to the recommended order these documents are also posted in board docs on the agenda so you have those and so using board policy 5612 and past practices as guides t
he petitioner is provided 10 total uh minutes to present her objection to the recommended uh order so in kind the superintend attorney will have also 10 minutes to respond Miss marule it's on you okay thank you I would just like to note that it was never communicated to me that I could come and speak for 10 minutes at this hearing and that there would be any kind of counter talk so there is quite a lack of clarity of parents' rights and privileges throughout this process and I'm going to point t
o that as I go through my presentation but this 10 minutes versus 10 minutes was was never explained in any communication that came to me from the school district okay so anyway good evening thank you for this opportunity to address you about my objections to a library book called Melissa by Alex goino my name is Crystal marule I am a mother of three children in the ELA County Public Schools I am also a professor at the University of Florida who holds several degrees including a master's degree
in education a master's degree and a PhD in bilingualism and in second language acquisition in addition I possess K to2 Spanish teaching certificates from the state of Pennsylvania New Jersey and Florida in Florida I also hold a certificate as an educational media specialist as a media specialist I am professionally trained to understand the legal standards that govern both the selection and the use of library books and educational materials in my children's schools and though I have expertise i
n language research and education I want to make it very clear that I am not affiliated with any group or organization that is challenging age inappropriate and our sexually explicit books forbidden by the Florida law rather I stand here as a concerned parent to challenge a book in my son's school library I am deeply committed to my children's education and the success of their schools this commitment is evident from my active roles serving as the parent representative on the school advisory cou
ncil at both T williger Elementary School Lofton high school and as the nrotc booster secretary at Gainesville High School as an involved parent I take pride in the achievements of my children with one being honored as a recipient of the National Merit Hispanic recognition program another excelling as a Cadet on the ghs academic team which is headed to the National brain brawl competition for the second year in a row and my youngest representing the inaugural cohort in the Dual language immersio
n program at tur Wier Elementary School their accomplishments and engagements underscore my unwavering dedication to my children's educational journey and our district school's Prosperity earlier earlier miss mcell you pointed to parents being involved I am an involved parent and I'm a concerned parent and that's why I'm here today to advocate for the implementation of the law that protects the children in the State of Florida recently I have challenged some books that were in the Gainesville Hi
gh School library that contain sexually explicit material and they have been removed I also objected to other books at tur williger Elementary School where my younger son is in first grade frankly I've been appalled by the content of some of those library books they normalize Marxist principles pornography and teach that three-year-olds can change their gender from day to day and year to year and I'm even more appalled by the school media specialist and the district media specialist's open refus
al to follow the state criteria for Library book selection at this point I wish to cite the Florida Statutes sections 10006 subsections which states the process for parent objections to books must provide the parent or resident the opportunity to profer evidence to the district school board while I have presented evidence before a hearing officer for the superintendent I have not been provided an opportunity to present my evidence or make my argument to this board therefore making these comments
and submitting more comments and suggest changes to the hearing officer's recommended order it is not and this is no longer relevant but it hadn't been communicated to me I say it is not appropriate to limit my presentation to 3 minutes typically allowed for public comment this is not public comment I'm an objective parent most recently on January 23rd I presented my arguments why the book Melissa by Alex G was not age appr appropriate for fourth and fifth graders at a public hearing before the
superintendent's hearing officer the hearing officer's recommended order is before you tonight for consideration a copy of that recommended order with my comments and suggested text changes inserted in Brackets and colorcoded has been provided to you and I trust that You' have had the time to read it the bottom line is that this recommendation does not reflect my evidence and argument which I presented at that hearing and more specifically it contains outright misrepresentations of my primary o
bjections to this children's book it is difficult to believe that the hearing officer or the staff attorney who may have assisted in drafting this order was taking notes or reviewed the hearing video when crafting this order contrary to the order's wording I did not object to this book book because it contained pornographic material in fact this was made clear at three or more different points in my presentation one and an answer to the hearing officer directly two on slide 12 of my PowerPoint p
resentation and three my final argument I stated that the issue was not pornographic content per se rather the passages in the book where a 14-year-old comments to his 10-year-old brother about his pornographic interests those passages could open a door in a child's mind to inquire or seek out more information about quote dirty magazines and pornography key words that a 10-year-old should not be contemplating or be instructed about from a book in their school library after participating in the p
ast two hearings it has become apparent that the personal opinions of the district and school media Specialists are motivating them to openly disregard the state selection criteria for Library materials I understand that these topics are controversial and we all have personal opinions but that's why there's a state statute put in place which is the voice of millions of people who have made votes for the legislation of what the criteria should end up being this is not about personal opinions this
is a professional opinion about the criteria set forth in the statutes which must be applied objectively by trained media Specialists such as myself the author's bio of this book clearly indicates that he is an activist for transgender for the transgender phenomenon that has swept over the United States and much of the Western World in the last 15 years 15 years ago there's virtually no medical literature about girls experiencing gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder and only 1 in 10,000
or 0 1% of the boys experienced it one frequently quoted author who has researched the subject has called it quote sudden onset of gender dysphoria which is now occurring at higher rates in girls and boys some studies show that about 4% of young boys are experiencing it today that's 400 times the incidence in only 15 years or approximately a 4,000% increase in a recent New York Times article published just two days ago or maybe three on February 2nd author Pamela Paul States studies show that a
round eight and 10 cases of childhood gender dysphoria resolv themselves by puberty and 30% of people on hormone therapy discontinu its use within 4 years though the effects including infertility are often irreversible she goes on to add quote to the trans activist dictum that children know their gender best it is important to add had something all parents know from experience children change their mind all the time Pamela Paul is hardly what one would consider a conservative but points to what
we all know there is no evidence that gender firming care is safe effective or medically necessary the science is not settled the debate about the causes treatments and role of social contagion are still ongoing this is a fictitional book a fictional book from the perspective of a boy who thinks he has become a girl and it does not qualify under the statutory standards in section 10006 subsections which are properly set forth in the first paragraph of the findings of fact in paragraph 8 of the c
onclusions of the law in the recommended order the author States this book targe fourth and fifth graders encourages and positively presents the social and medical transitioning of children who suffer from gender dysphoria while while using inappropriate sexualized dialogue between the characters the author is clearly advocating gender affirming ideology and has included telephone numbers and websites for children to seek further information and counsel let me remind you that providing access to
therapists to children under the age of 13 without parental concert consent is illegal in the state of Florida once you become familiar with the content of this book I believe you would conclude this book should not be reviewed by any children before the ninth grade and his or parents or Guardians should definitely be involved under State guidelines gender identity may not even be discussed in the classroom until 9th grade and one of the considerations for selecting library books is the degree
to which the text supports State academic standards and aligns with curriculum as well as the academic needs of students and faculty it's clear that the criteria for instructional material material are more restrictive than for Library material yet the purpose of a school library is to quote supp ment the basic reading assigned through the standard curriculum end quote this text is from a motion filed in Peter Parnell at all versus the school board of Lake County Florida thank you miss marule yo
ur 10 minutes is up I would like to ask for an additional three minutes since nobody indicated that I would have a 10-minute time limit Mr I I think the board has um there this process has provided a reasonable opportunity uh under the statute to okay for this presentation to challenge the prior due process afforded during the hearing I don't believe I've had the opportunity to address the board we've given you 10 minutes that's according to our I think that's fair and adequate that's the rule M
iss fa in adequate is the statute okay thank you m m Miss seagull you have 10 minutes to respond thank you madam chair um let me first correct an in uh a misunderstanding perhaps Dr murl has the hearing officer Dr Bessie Jackson was appointed by the board not appointed by the superintendent appointed by a board at a board meeting Dr Jackson was a retired administrator of this school and was a media specialist with the Masters in um uh Library science Dr marule has only last October and she's put
into her evidence became a media specialist by virtue of taking a certificate test but she's never curated a a media uh library or so forth the statute that deals with the books that can be selected for a library is um it's actually 10628 2 d2a but that refers you of course to another statute which is 106.4 3D and all that's required for a library book not a book used for instruction but just available for student use in the library is that it be free from pornography and material prohibited by
one of the criminal statutes on Deviant sexuality and that it's suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented and that it's appropriate for the grade level and age group for which the mials materials are used instead of asking questions of the media special specialist at T williger and the media specialist for the district on the statutes wording uh Dr marule used language from a training slide that she used from the state while she was making the training and t
he problem is the training slide was just enacted last year and a number of the slides have been and they're undergoing change this year because they don't follow the statute um but she would ask questions saying well what degree is this material will be supplemental to classroom instruction well being supplemental to classroom instruction is not one of the three things listed under the statute for library books read bullet point C and excuse me excuse me you can't do that Miss Maru come on now
come on gave you 10 minutes you've had your 10 minutes thank you um she has re she mentioned the the of School Board of Lake County versus Parnell or Parnell versus the school board of Lake County I think we've all heard of that before um and it's a case where there was a library book called and Tango makes three in the Lake City Lake County library and the elementary the book is an elementary school book about two male penguins in Central Park Zoo that together raised a baby penguin Lake County
pulled it right off the shelf based on thinking it violated House Bill 155 57 which is the house bill that prohibited classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity uh it was later extended to K8 but it was K3 the case was sued against the Lake County school board but also the State Board of Education and and the uh so forth and the state people filed a motion to dismiss and what they said that's interesting is that Lake County removed it from the shelves incorrectly believing t
hat the Restriction in House Bill 1557 on classroom instruction applied to school library books they went on to say a school's provision of library books is not an affirmative Act of teaching in a classroom library books by their nature are optional rather than required a library book that encourages kids to read voluntarily is supplemental to their education as reading is required in all disciplines um it is not confined to the curricular material of a specific classroom course I encourage you
there is a video of the hearing I encourage you to look at the video if you like to see how the questions were asked but our folks answered the questions appropriately Lake County after this motion was filed and hearing what the state folks had to say put the book back on the Shelf because it was just a library book the book in question does not have anything to do with classroom instruction it's only supplemental in the sense that if you can get children to read anything don't give them especia
lly what they want it is supplemental and good for children um Dr marule is certainly welcome to tell us to keep that book away from her child let her child not check it out and we have a system that's very easy to use that will say if her son or daughter comes up and says I'd like to read that book say oh then they will steer the child to something else but she should not be permitted to come in here and tell every other parent in this District what their child should not read so I would our ou
r recommendation that through the superintendent is to uh approve this uh Dr Jackson's order as presented you all have had an opportunity to look at the things that Dr marule has written and I would suggest that appropriate thing would be to go ahead and approve the U uh Dr Jackson's order or recommendation you you've had you've heard the motion I mean you heard the recommendation is there a motion public comment I got that got yeah I got to get a motion first I got you I move um that we accept
the recommendation from here in officer okay is there a second it's been moved in property second now citizens input first we have Miss Elizabeth husband and then we'll have Tamara douche WR this stand good evening Madam chairman and board my name is Elizabeth husband I'm a retired school counselor mother grandmother and great-grandmother personally I'm glad children have books like Melissa available in school libraries I wish my husband and I had had to been able to read this book when we were
growing up if we had maybe we would have been spared a lot of Heartache we got married in 1965 and had three children but in 1976 my husband realized the advice he got from his youth pastor when he questioned his sexual orientation had not worked for him he did what he was told pray go to church find a nice girl to marry everything will be fine he did it all but he was still gay and I was left feeling guilty wondering where had I failed if only I were a better wife maybe he couldn't he wouldn't
choose to be gay even though there are still people who believe being lgbtq plus is a choice most of us know better than that now furthermore research shows the dangers of denying one's true self so I am glad children today can read stories about lgbtq characters whose identities are not only accepted but celebrated I'm glad they learn to love themselves and others just the way they were created what I do not like is the message that will be sent if books about lgbtq people are removed from the
library speaking as a retired mental health professional I believe removing such books is potentially harmful to the mental health of our students I hope the word will continue to support the wisdom of our professional media Specialists who choose to include books like this one in our school libraries thank you so much Tamar Rouch good evening Madam chair in the board um I'm here as a former Elo County Public School student and a registered mental health counseling intern um I'm here to address
the challenge obviously to the book Melissa um I reviewed the exhibits provided by Professor Maru um in the agenda and within her own testimony in both that and her discussion here she misgenders both the character and the author and though this is irrelevant to the book Banning itself she also cites studies out of context and does not site the American Medical Association the American Academy of Pediatrics the American Psychological Association the American Association of endocrinologists and m
ore when discussing the trans transition of Youth this presentation also attacks resources for lgbtq plus youth seeking support such as the Trevor Project which is a Lifeline for lgbtq plus kids and pains protecting children from being outed in unsafe homes as promoting quote unquote hiding from their parents disregarding the abuse that lgbtq plus children especially trans children can face second I remember being a queer student scattering the library for lgbtq plus books the young people of to
day have a much wider range of books for all ages but if they can't access them then they are left as stranded as we were 15 to 20 years ago I would hope that Ela County Public Schools have come further than that and I trust the elal county school public Librarians with their education and experience to determine what is appropriate for our students one person is challenging this book and in fact has challenged most of the books they should not dictate what every other child has access to as oth
ers have said before me our schools are meant to serve the best interests of all our children if we want to be here for the children that includes trans children parents of other children and trans children also have rights Melissa was awarded the Lambda well I'm just going to go to the end support and connection to their communities improves the mental health outcomes for Trans youth mental health outcomes that have significantly worsened thank you and will be improved thank you by the support
thank you Susan botcher okay Bob Edward two two minutes or three minutes two minutes two minutes okay um I've come alongside M Maru recently and reviewed this entire matter I'm a retired professional who worked with legal matters for 35 years anyhow I would take great exception to a staff attorney's interpretation of the law it is erroneous and I look for an opportunity to meet with Mr Delaney and discuss the matter but I'm I'm going to read Miss maru's uh personal experience she said I wish to
address what has been happening to me as an objecting parent over the past few months who expressed concern that state mandated criteria for selection of library materials have been ignored by your employees who are responsible for applying them for the benefit of our children I have participated in two District level hearings apparently in opposition to the superintendent and his staff that should have been before an unbiased hearing officer with the requisite qualifications to understand the i
ssues related to selecting library books the hearing officer has amply demonstrated by her comments and actions her unwillingness to uphold and her willingness to uphold virtually any objection by the staff attorney when this is not a Civil Trial this is not a proceeding with Rules of Evidence it is a hearing for parents to present their case further her willingness to interrupt my presentations coupled Mor's presentations coupled with the distortions and errors in her recommended orders confirm
s I have not been accorded a fair and impartial hearing her apparent biased against my objections evidence in favor of the superintendent led me to request that she recuse herself and you have a copy of that request parents deserve what the Florida law requires an experienced unbiased hearing officer to consider their concerns please be be clear this request is based upon the qualifications of the hearing officer and nothing else thank you so much Amy tras and then Jane spear thank you madam cha
ir uh so I'd like to First dispel uh something that this witness said uh my child was 3 years old and he went to a Christian school one day the teachers gave everybody cutouts and it was they were supposed to color it in to reflect their self-portraits they gave my son a boy and he broke down in tears screaming and crying saying that's not me this isn't who I am I want the girl this is not me he was 3 years old he was not able to come to that conclusion by some ideologic narrative that came to h
is school and then later on we found a book about a year later we read it together and he cried again because he said Mama they're like me they're like me this book does so much more than you know allow someone to read a book it is a duty of care uh it allows kids to understand them eles and the world around them critical reasoning critical thinking uh developing empathy it makes kids feel seen and feel heard and not alone and as someone before me talked about the Trevor Project if we are commit
ted to student Excellence our job is to care for them entirely this book has no ideology no pornographic methods by State Statute or definition and and we are protected under the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights to have freedom of speech and freedom of expression these authors utilized that voice and they did so for the benefit of these students they were ruled appropriate for their age by people that were entrusted to examine these materials Banning this title would be banning that
speech and it would be inhibiting the growth and progress of every child that could benefit from that um one person's discomfort does not outweigh the freedoms uh of every student and every other parent in this District thank you thank you Mr TR hello my name is Jane spear I've been I've spoken before you a couple of times recently good evening Mr Andrew Miss legal uh chair mcra and board members I was unable to attend either of the hearings that um Dr moral uh referenced so I'm not able to add
ress any of their specific issues however I know many media specialists in our public school system I know their education their levels of Education their training uh and their commitment their commitment to the education and dedication um of our students they understand and they follow the standards and the protocols that have been established by our school system When selecting books that are age and subject appropriate they deserve our respect and support be parents certainly have an obligati
on to see their children's reading material while I know that all books are not agreeable to all parents I believe that having books with differing points of view is the very essence of Education we want our children to learn to think critically and not just regurgitate names and dates to do that successfully children need access to a variety and often competing points of view all in all I ask the board to stand with our teachers and media Specialists and let them do their jobs as they were trai
ned and hired to do thank you thank you any phone calls Mr okay all right it's back to the board Dr rock whale can enter into record my statements to you since I wasn't able to complete it can I just hand it to you and enter into the record please to the board members Miss Jackie Johnson and give those to her thank you Dr right will so I want to speak about this um I attended training by the fsba on the state statutes so that I would thoroughly understand them and Mr Delaney was one of the attor
neys who conducted that training and he can verify that I asked so many questions he wanted to kick me out of the room but I asked a ton of questions I wanted to understand these statutes inside and outside and then when I got back I called him with more questions and I sat down with attorney seagull with more questions I wanted to make sure that I completely understood how this statute worked for classroom materials and Library materials and they are in fact very different I also promised mysel
f that I would not vote on a book I had not read so I purchased Melissa and I read the entire book and I have to tell you I have read a lot of middle- grades books for that fourth through 8th grade age group with my children and did not enjoy most of them Melissa is an amazing book I recommend that anyone who's curious read it um it's the characters are so well written that even as an adult I cared about them which is very unusual in children's books I usually feel like it's kind of silly and su
rface level but it was excellent but that's not relevant to the hearing what's relevant to the hearing is does it violate State Statute and it does not it does not violate state statute for Library materials now can this be used as instructional material could a teacher do a novel study on this not not according to our state statute can it exist in our libraries absolutely according to State Statute it can there is nothing in this book that violates State Statute I'm also speaking as the parent
of a fourth grader who is the age group targeted she's on the youngest end of the age group that would be recommended to read this book and when I finished reading it I handed it to her and said you can add this to your bookshelf and read it if you're interested there is nothing in it that I would find objectionable and if it was moved from the library that my child had access to I would be very upset as a parent because it doesn't violate State Statute and I understand that different parents ha
ve different standards for what what they want their children exposed to and my standards don't apply to Dr marule and that is fine that is why State Statute also requires us to keep an online accessible database of all of our classroom and school library materials and we already had one for our libraries but our classroom libraries our teachers and media Specialists worked their tails off getting all of those dat those titles updated approved by media special Specialists and available for paren
ts to peruse so that any parent can determine that they don't want their child to have access to any number of those materials and you can sign up that your child is not allowed access to whatever titles you desire um I support parental rights parental rights to me means my rights to parent my children and your rights to parent your children telling my child that she can't have access to an age appropriate book that does not violate State Statute violates my parental rights because not every par
ent can just go to Amazon and purchase Melissa if their child wants to read it and they're okay with that so you know I want to say I just wanted to make it clear to the public that I do not vote without reading all of the material presented including what was emailed to to me by Dr marule um and Dr marule as an aside you'll be getting an email from me because miss m invited me into the class to read and I want to make sure that the book I'm reading is one that you are okay with so you'll be get
ting an email from me but that's an aide but that's what parental rights look like is making sure that parents get to approve what their children have access to so I I want you to know that I take this very seriously I read everything you send to me I've researched the statute and legal language is very hard to understand so I have asked experts numerous questions and I have read the book in questions so I take my responsibility to keeping our students safe very seriously and I will be voting to
keep Melissa on our school library shelves because I can't find any reason that it violates State Statute and would present present a safety issue to our children thank you Dr Rockwell Miss Abbot I'm going to read you an excerpt from the book she immersed her body in the warm water and tried not to think about what was between her legs but it was there bobing in front of her hey Rick it looks like someone is finally starting to grow balls this is in a k this is in a library for kindergarten thr
ough fifth grade nothing makes her more uncomfortable than when boys talked about what was in her Underpants now do most kids in elementary school have conversations with boys about what's in their underpants George had been reading websites about transitioning since Scott taught her how to clear the web browser history on Mom's computer what she has between her legs was nobody's business but her and her boy friends now and and and this is this is K Abbott's opinion on this I would not want my c
hild to go into a library and pick up that book and start reading that and and it has nothing to do with with a child that's unsure about her sexuality that may be trans it I would be I would not like it if it were about a kid who was very sure of of her sexuality that that has that has no place in in a library and back here in some of the notes it says this is a you know this book offers speaks to Friendship kindness and acceptance there are so many books that speak to that without the sexual e
lement in and so I I believe in parental rights I I'm going to tell you that I'm very offended by the way that Dr moral has been treated I mean she comes in here and it's like this environment it's just parents have rights and they can they they can be have rights like you have Dr Rockwell they can have Ro rights like Dr Moro but everybody needs to be treated with respect and and so I'm going to vote not to keep in the library because I'm oldfashioned and I just that's just how I am I there was
another book that came up that I voted to keep in a library because I read it just like just like Dr Rockwell I'm not going to vote on something if I don't read it and and I did vote on the other book to keep it in the library and I'm I'm not you don't have to worry because I'll be outnumbered but but those are my thoughts on it I think that in AO in you know I would not want my child who's a second grader third grader even a fourth grader to be reading sexual passages in in a library book at a
school thank you Mr a seeing no other lights Dr Rockwell you got your light still on um I just wanted to clarify because one of the passages that was read was actually two separate passages that were connected together UMC right but the way it was read it made it sound like there was someone else in the bathroom when Melissa was taking a bath and there was not the comment about someone finally grew some balls was because Melissa got into a fight with the because she stood up to the class bully a
nd that comment was made as slang as a colloquialism not in reference to actual genitals I I don't think that we should have have things that indicate to Fourth Graders third graders or second graders that boys are trying to get in your underpants and that nobody but the boyfriend should be able to do that I I'm I'm just telling you how I feel I'm I'm oldfashioned that's just how I feel right okay all right hearing no other all in favor I I I'll oppose sorry officer said okay all oppose n 41 Mis
s green you got it all right thank you all moving on to Citizen input I have some slips Amy tras before I start before my time start someone left their phone over here so um okay okay so thank you so much Madam chair um I just want to briefly mention uh uh something tonight we heard a lot of of partisan and a lot of divisive uh attitudes I guess uh we heard stay in our lanes um we saw what I would consider a public shaming of Miss ceron and Dr Rockwell um and it was all in the name of unity and
I wanted to I want to just quickly dispel this idea that disagreement is bad um disagreement is a great thing disagreement is how we progress and Thrive as a society when we're able to communicate across our differences and find the humanity within each other then we can get a lot more done uh so so I don't think that disagreement is bad what I do think is bad is you know similar to our government right now we can't cherry-pick what makes us comfortable because growth doesn't come out uh come ab
out without transparency so personally I'm really grateful for Dr Rockwell and Miss ceron for bringing out the negative because if all we hear is the positive then we don't we're not awake to the issues and we can't become activists we can't jump to the call uh we don't know what to change if it's not mentioned uh there's a difference between transparency uh and negativism but I don't think that it's appropriate to shame each other while we're on the board because just like uh I believe it was m
cne Miss McNeely said you can't call out name I apologize just like one of the board members said um a lot of people don't want to come to these meetings and it's because we don't have an example uh that our kids can follow um and so in reference to each other and the Dynamics of this board and how we move forward together especially with the public um I think it's just really important to note that so far the school board has shown that they haven't been transparent and quite a few issues and s
o you know a lot of the people that I know and myself included I appreciate the transparency and I think that's not the same thing as anger or disagreement so thank you uh Taylor G [Applause] from evening board chair board members I'd like to I think congratulate the board on a step tonight in what I think is the right direction which is centering data and goals and conversations about where we go as a district I think that was a positive step forward and I enjoyed I think listening to your spir
ited discussions and the way that you came together um and expressed your opinions I think I just have a couple recommendations that I'd like to offer you um and to the staff I think one of the things that I started with reminding us is is about what I would consider to be a low bar that school grade set for us I noticed that the agreed upon goal is rooted in a SE or higher for the four schools that were named um as it stands in the 2223 school year a c is 33% or higher so one out of three kids
being proficient in the math reading and Ela and I would defer to staff if that number is going to be changing um I would suggest a potential higher goal I don't know if it's really said and stone at this point I think a LOF year goal that's rooted in the Essa Federal index is 41% um that is the the market which kids are getting out of the federal index for underperforming um and I think represents a push goal goal that would be associated with um a goal I would leave it to you to discuss where
the 30 33% for elementary schools is is a lofty goal um it sounds like there is an a workshop in order for the evaluation I think that's going to be a really good productive conversation for you all to think about I would encourage you to also set criteria for what should be true of an evaluation metric so if we're using the school grades um I think smart goals is a great place to start is it specific measurable actionable time Bound by September 1st we will have dates in place I think that's a
really productive way to move forward um I'm running a little short on time I think just the only thing I think I miss didn't hear in the conversation we talked about a bonus for the superintendent for success of those schools I didn't hear anything about teachers or the school staff and how they'd be compensated for achieving that as well thank you Mr G Mike Perkins and then miss AIS Butler and then Fay Williams good evening again I want to say that um that discussion about the book I thought t
hat was a very good discussion I didn't see anybody being rude to anybody I thought everybody presented that case quite well and I thought that um each case each side presented itself very well I want to contrast that to U the discussions when we discussing the salary issue and um and all other issues that was very hard to sit through um I became hungry I couldn't sit still in my seat and it was just like um the the chair pointed out it's just that consecutive bombardment of negativity just 25 2
0 minutes of negative stuff just going back and forth so it merely made for an uncomfortable environment it's a very different to have a difference of opinion and it's okay to agree to disagree but when you just come with a whole bunch of just negativity it's an uncomfortable environment and it makes this place people don't want to come here for that and it's okay to not agree and it's okay to have a different opinion but it's not okay to be nasty and and just um it comes out as it's a personal
attack on someone it it didn't come out like you know you just didn't agree it came out personal so hopefully we will do better as the um chair has asked us to do we'll all do better make this place a more um um um positive environment so that citizens want to come and we will sit through it and my last comment is that I would appreciate if the this this committee will put some rules in place that stop you guys from being able to go back and forth bantering with with one another cuz we can't do
it thank you m Butler Madam chair members of the board and Mr superintendent I just want to thank you all because had it not been 35 years ago that this board uh with the assistance of your uh former educator and administrator the current commissioner Cynthia Chestnut we would not have had the summer youth program 35 years ago we called it the clout program Community linkages and opportunities for unemployed teenagers it over the last two years the citizens uh uh the children's trust fund from e
lateral county has funded the summer employment for our youth and I heard your discussion uh Madam chair when you talked about not every child will go to college or wants to go to college so it's so good that we can provide opportunity unities and I like to say that I stand here ready as a volunteer if you all decide that you want to expand the youth uh Employment Program and have something in place during the school year we know that there are restrictions in terms of the number of hours and th
e type of employment activities that can be performed by our kids but certainly we need it we need it more than just for the summertime and I just want to say thank you because it was a lcha County School Board who voted to have the program you all were the ones in place to put it in place to advocated to the county and the City and now it took another 30s something years to get it back up and running but it has done a fantastic job over the last two years and I certainly stand here ready to vol
unteer to help you thank you thank you Miss Williams good evening good evening maybe me T night um thanks for allowing me to speak when I came here today I wanted to I the main reason I showed up was to object to um our superintendent get an an increase in his contract I read it over and over and over then I found out that it was changed and education is important to me I'm a community organizer my name is Fay Williams I'm a community organizer over in Porter quarters the top of my list is about
affordable housing education gun violence trying to make progress that way I was totally disappointed because I can remember back three or four years ago when we had the chant we only need three on the board we only need three on the board and at that point we were talking about three black women who would come together discuss events and make it happen our way to see the three black women battling with each other hurt my heart you it was not only you all but the whole whole dasas battled again
st each other it hurts my heart because we should have been talking about Freedom schools we should have been lifting up black history it is Black History MTH and I want to just end because I see I'm I'm almost out of time but I want to thank Dr Rockwell and I want to thank you Tina certain for speaking out for having the ethics to not hold in to not have secrets to let it be open to the public because it means a a lot when the people can see what's happening behind the D in front and I want to
thank you for being able to speak out when you were being attacked and it's not right thank you Miss Willam I hope that never happens again time is thank you for representing today student representative input you got anything you want to say I got five phone calls oh you have five calls okay go ahead first one I have two minutes with the board we'll be back in the morning or you have two minutes with the board please state your name caller you have two two minutes with the board please state yo
ur name next caller caller please state your name you have two minutes with the board caller please state your name you have two minutes with board hello please state your name you have two minutes with the board hello caller are you there okay yes my name is Tina days and I'm calling in support superintendent Andrew and making Willams a IB program I think it's the abolute choice um it would give parents a choice to either let their kids stay and IB or either send their kids to IB Program um it
was it would show results it may not be the first year but it definitely show results in the second year and what is the awesome opportunity to have our young kids to start an IB program and hopefully end up going to Lincoln L or Bishop at the program then end back into the IV program at e um I just don't understand why there's so many negative thought of superintendent trying to make uh IB uh wins to IB program it just does not make any sense this is Vision this is growth even P county has a a
a a magnet program starting out in kindergarten we've just been so far behind so I do support superintendent andw thank you very much thank you caller please state your name you have two minutes with the board hello yes go ahead with your comment please state your name hello caller you have two minutes with the board please state your name well um I assume you can hear Mee with your comment my name is yangang and thank you board first of first of all I'd like to congratulate the athletes and coa
ches showed up today for their achievements I believe they know better than anyone else that how much effort they have put in their programs the same tremendous work have been including the Williams Magnum program by the current and previous teacher and students is that rate that the board just celebrate all the athletic achievements and then only focus on the low performing schools when discussing superintendent Andrew's contract the high achieving students need attention too education is for a
ll students but we have to realize students are not all the same it seems easy to portrate many kids as privileged but the truth is that these kids spend almost two hours on the road every day and they wake up at 6: a.m. we're talking about providing a suitable environment for all levels of kids all third grade M case are learning fourth grade math now the district want to mix all students in ibp program how can the teachers teach well when they have students of both third grade level and fourth
grade level in the same class the man parents are not refusing the program is about how to implement it our concern is that we are told that all classes must be mixed and the learning environment the district committed to the man students will not exist anymore the district is failing the kids most importantly the administration dictated this decision without discussion with the public I urge the board to arrange one Workshop to discuss this matter and put the current plan on hold also want to
clarify that will M classrooms share the same hallway and are mixed with other classrooms of the same grade it have a separate area on campers thank you very much thank you caller you have two minutes with the board please state your name caller please state your name you have two minutes with the board keep going can get caller please state your name you have two minutes with the board hello caller are you there caller please state your name you have two minutes with the board hello yes please
state your name you have 2 minutes with the board if you're talking to me yes sir yes I'm talking to you hi are you speaking to me yes I'm speaking to you hi hi you have two minutes with the board please state your name hello go ahead with your comment sir oh you still got plac next caller you got one we using caller please state your name you have two minutes with the board hello yes go ahead with your comment this is Karen Alford I'm not sure if you can hear my comments I cannot hear you but I
just wanted to say um congratulations to superintendent Andrew I do feel that you are the right choice for this time I look forward to working with you because you do listen and you're engaged with the community uh despite some negative comments at towards the end it was somewh en encouraging watching the meeting because there were so many positive things about our students uh they were out front tonight they were engaged and that's a great thing for our community um I think this meeting was re
presented by schools across our community and this was also very good uh we saw coaches that grew up in our community um and now they're leaders they're leading our kids they are a product of our community and this is also incouraged it said to me that we can't have homegrown leaders I myself am a product of duall Rollins Elementary H isip any side so we do have um good things that come from our community um I also want to say that um I feel there is a glimmer of hope um that we can come togethe
r as a board um as staff and as a community to invest in the future students tonight I observed leadership I observed compromise I observe board members handling the business at hand uh we've seen taken a step back as I said a little toward the end with the extensive negative comments unfortunately but I encourage all of you to get on the board uh get on board with moving forward uh there are some things that we do right there are some things that we do wrong but everything is not wrong so pleas
e please come forward um I want to say I'm hopeful we will continue to come together as we move uh towards helping our students and improving our students and I want to say thank you for your service and please let's stay the course and get some things done thank you caller please St your name you have two minutes with the board I want to say I'm hopeful we will continue to come together as we uh to helping our students and improving our students me you ready for me yes ma'am okay hello I'm hell
o I'm oh I guess it's not my turn is your turn can you please mute your laptop remove my laptop okay like that am I ready to speak now please state your name you have two minutes with the board yes I'm L Lisa Miller and I want to thank Dr Rockwell and Miss Thon for their transparency and for upholding their Promises to the children and to the constituents everything that they say it's it's factual and it's backed up by State Statute and public record I don't see it as negativity um and I feel th
at people are bullying them on the diet uh specifically uh the last two who had spoken who um seem to be pretty chummy and I don't mean that in a negative way but that's how it comes across people have a right to express themselves the way they choose the same way that you do and they should not be labeled negative because what they say challenges your belief or what you feel should be done because you favor a certain person be it the superintendent in this case um I think that's knocking on the
door of NEP nepotism you know you have friends that you you invite to come there from your sororities and fraternities to attend meetings to promote your agendas and you say you don't play games but that's what you're doing you're playing games and and politicking on the diet and you do it behind closed doors so whoever seems to speak up against what your beliefs are they're tagged with the negative label and that's not right you're playing the same games that you accuse everyone else of doing
so you know Dr ratwell Miss C keep keep speaking out because we the public we want to know keep posting on uh your social media Schoolboard Pages you have a right to do that you have a right to the public to be transparent that's what we want to see and it's not playing games it's being transparent it's not being negative it's being it's called parency it's called transparency thank you your time's expired all right anymore that's so fine car you have two minutes with the board please state your
name hello yes go ahead with your comment huh you have two minutes with the board please state your name hi my name is kalissa Bara and there is a few things that I want to go over about um my kids school first of all the ca IIA one time my son's lunch money didn't like my husband put the lunch money in the lunch um app thing and um that morning when it said there was zero balance or whatever and um it didn't hit till 30 minutes after his lunchtime and so the lady other lady that gives him the
food gave him the food and then when he got to the thing the lady took his plate and just threw it out he was completely embarrassed and gave him two slices of bread um a slice of cheese and apparently still carrots and thing ran um my son was completely embarrassed like came home crying he's in the sixth grade he has Asbergers he had no idea like no idea why anybody would do that um he was heartbroken and he goes to a school where there's gangs and bullies and everything else like now the cashi
er makes him type in his code to make sure there's money in his thing before he eats every day that is I couldn't imagine having to do that in the sixth grade at a new school and being completely embarrassed and some days he doesn't even want to eat because of that your time has expired is that all okay all right now I'll try to student rep thank you for hanging in tonight we're GNA try to not keep you here long in the future yeah hi uh first I just want to thank you for this opportunity to be h
ere it's my first school board meeting ever um and it's a little l so I can't really I have a lot of thoughts that I'm going to keep to myself just for today because I don't really like trust myself to form coherent thoughts right now um but I just want to thank you for this opportunity because it's been very interesting to actually see how these decisions are made uh I definitely see that you are all so passionate about us about the students and about everything that goes on in our district and
so I thank you for that uh I am interested going forward I'm going to be serving for the rest of the uh year until May right so I am interested in seeing how we can utilize this time better to make decisions that maybe impact our students a little bit more uh directly and so I'm excited to see how we can do that but yeah thank you very much thank you look forward to it uh board member superintendent request Dr Rockwell I'm going to keep this very quick I want to request that we move our student
representative input to the front of the agenda like when we have superintendent and board announcements so that if we have a meeting that runs long we're not asking a young person who has to be at school early in the morning to stay until 11:30 at night and I'm also going to request that we schedule some sort of town hall Community input with the parents of Williams um Mr Del you want to address how according to policy how they should request things to go on your agenda sure so uh it can be do
ne through board member requests you know as we're doing now uh those thoughts can also be shared directly with the superintendent during uh board meeting okay directly with the superintendent not St okay all right Miss abot yeah I I just have a question about the book reviews so should board members be attending those if if we're going to be voting on it at a later date can sure so my recommendation is any matter that may come before the board in the future for um what sometimes referred to as
a quasi judicial hearing um an employee um termination or employee discipline proceeding uh a book challenge anything like that that's going to come before the board in the board's going to be considering evidence my recommendation would be not to attend those and just take the evidence and the results of the lower level proceedings fresh on a fresh take when it comes before the board so uh I I it's my understanding that there was some interest in that process because it was a new process in the
district um in terms of book challenges um but I think uh for a a clear as record as possible it would be better if the board waits to receive all the information after those lower level processes have finished what if you receive a summon so to speak if that happens give me a call we'll talk about it Miss seag yeah I was going to say one of the things that you can do now we are now uploading the videos of the hearings to um aren't we uploading them to U the YouTube channel so after the hearing
is over with and when you receive the notice we're going to be here you can watch that and see what actually happens and I would encourage you to do so because it's a little different than than you may imagine um the other thing is the issue of summons Mr Delaney I think I I've written you a note about that um the um we don't issue subpoenas here we can there is a procedure by which we can but I have voluntarily permitted any employee to come at Dr maru's request to a hearing this time though s
he requested I bring Mr Andrew and K Abbott and I I need I would like Mr Delaney to please let her know that that that's a conflict and I will let her know that the superintendent has a similar conflict but I would rather you do that as the board attorney Mr Delaney and I certainly concur that I don't think that that would be appropriate to have a board member um attend that type of hearing as a witness especially right Mr Andrew you have any requests okay all right then thank you all so much fo
r joining us this meetings adjourned at 11:32 we already announced that we'll be back in the morning at 10:00
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