##VIDEO ID:MSnaRNQJiZY## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen the board has just completed its annual reorganization meeting where three newly elected board members were sworn in congratulations to new school board members for district one Matthew Lane District Two Virginia saveto and District Five Gloria Branch I will now call the regular school board meeting to order at 5:00 pm Mrs Sinclair please call The rooll District 1 Matthew Lane presid District Two Virginia saveto here District three Karen BR here district four er ER Whitfield here District Five Gloria Branch here District Six Mara Andrews here District Seven Edwin Ferguson here also joining us is superintendent Michael Burke general counsel sha Bernard Inspector General Teresa Michael board clerk son Tony Sinclair and student County president Isabella marisola senior staff members will join us periodically as directed by the superintendent tonight the national anthem will be performed by the Santa lucus community High School band of chiefs would everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mrs Whitfield followed by the national anthem Al to the flag of the United States of America to the stand indivisible andice for all Chee [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Encore what's going on viewers and listeners can access the meeting today by either watching on Comcast channels 234 and 235 Erse channel 99 or by using the YouTube link on our web page at palmbeachschools.org in the event that the link is interrupted for technical reasons please switch up over to the TV channels all board meetings are recorded in their entirety and posted on the school district website within 24 hours we also offer a listening only option which the public can access by calling 561 3575 900 or toll free at 1866 930 7015 the meeting ID is 1561 88124 4 pound board members we don't have any minutes to approve I have some items that I'm adding for good cause once my computer allows me to okay the items that are added are going to be brd1 brd2 brd3 lr1 LR2 and P2 good cause exists to add these items to the agenda so that the newly elected school board members May travel to Tampa to attend the Florida SCH school board association's annual joint conference including the new Schoolboard member Academy there will not be another opportunity for the board to consider this item prior to the conference start date December 3rd Mr superintendent do you have any items to withdraw no Madam chair board members do you have any items to pull from consent okay seeing none I will now take a motion to approve the agenda motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Mrs saveto any discussion all in favor all oppos motion carries unanimously oh I'm sorry I stand corrected I have a lot of good cause items that I have to read so I'm going to go back now to the items that I've added for good cause lr1 modifications to the collective bargaining agreement with this police benevolent Association PBA good cause exists for adding this item to allow for timely payroll processing LR2 the 2005 salary increases for the asop employee group good cause exists for adding this item to allow for timely payroll processing and P2 which is the Personnel addendum good cause exists for adding this item so that employees can begin in their new positions as soon as possible that will now bring us to the consent agenda no items were pulled I'll take a motion again to okay motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Mrs saveto any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously any disclosures and abstentions seeing none superintendent and board comments Mr superintendent yes thank you I want to also officially welcome our three new school board members to the Das district one Mr Matthew Lane District Two Miss Virginia saveto District 5 Miss Goya Branch I look forward to working with each of you and I also want a few more comments last week our very own Schoolboard member Mr Marsha Andrews was presented the free spirit Outreach community service Lifetime Achievement Award for ongoing commitment to providing students meaningful mentorship and access to a high quality education congratulations Mrs Andrews on her Lifetime Achievement Award we have a nice picture there U last Monday we had the privilege of thanking those who answered the call to serve our nation during a Veterans Day ceremony right here in the boardroom thank you to the Palm Beach Central High School Traditions chorus Park fista Community High School Wind Ensemble brass and the Forest Hill High School junior Roc I want to take this opportunity to recognize our Deputy superintendent Mr Ed Tierney as well as the many others across the district who have proudly served this country in the armed services they now continue that sentiment of service for this community as administrators Educators and support staff on behalf of the school dist pom County once more thank you Veterans for your service and we have a short video here from last week's ceremony for for the audience we have an annual tradition at school M County to honor our veterans we're very proud of their service to their country and their continued service to our students veterans make excellent employees and we're really lucky to have them on our team I think the palmes County School District does an awesome job with veterans and making sure that um we get recognized each and every year I think our veterans makes a strong team memb because they're accustomed to the discipline and the commitment that it takes to really support a noble cause and uh they work hard and they're dedicated to making sure that the needs of our students are met music was provided by the Park Vista Community High School Wind Ensemble [Music] brass in the Palm Beach Central High School Traditions course [Music] we want to thank the forel Community High School Falcon Battalion Army jrc color guard for presenting the colors today hope everyone has a great Veterans Day let's be sure to thank our veterans for their service very nice I want to thank our Communications team for really putting that event together uh lastly as we head into Thanksgiving break I wanted to extend my gratitude to the members of Team Palm Beach for their dedication to educate affirm and Inspire our students and to our community we are thankful your commitment to our schools just this month the community supported the half penny that provides our students with a positive learning environment and all the capital needs that uh we must meet across our large large district and I'm thankful for this opportunity to continue to serve our community superintendent I wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving Madam chair that concludes my comments thank you so I'm going to start with the board member comments and just let you know that our former Vice chair Mrs mcquinn suggested to me that I occasionally mix it up and start at the opposite end so today we will start in the board member number order but I will be sending starting us I'm going to try to alternate and remember so that this way we'll start at this end one meeting and the other end another meeting so with that Mr Lane do you have any comments thank you I'd like to begin by complimenting everyone who is involved in my onboarding process I especially want to thank our board clerks Tony Sinclair for doing such a great job she is is amazing she's precise detail oriented and a pleasure to work with and my orientation went off like a precise Swiss watch I also want to thank Shan kouly Amy Johnston sha Bernard Elaine Gallagher Jennifer bz Kevin Bano Sylvia ESP Spinosa Kavon ramasar Javier Rodriguez Leanne lonano Nancy Bolton my great assistant Christina doctor and of course our superintendent for making me feel so at home thank you very much thank you Miss Sao thank you to everyone who joined me for this weing ceremony especially my parents my son Luca judge Dalia wise Pastor Dugan and so many friends and Community leaders I also want to thank Mr Burke and everyone in his team for the warm welcome special thanks to my assistant Tina senior for her support during the transition I am truly grateful for her help so starting in January I will hold mobile office hours in my district to promote engagement and accessibility for parents students and teachers thank you to the city of Green Acres fire chief Ryan Fuller for offering his fire station once a month I will share dates and times soon I am proud to be a board member of Latin quarter westbon Beach a dedicated organization supporting the community within the 33405 ZIP code where I grew up founded by Dina Rubio over 5 years ago this organization continues to make a difference we're small But Mighty recently we launched the above and ab uh Beyond excellencia award uh to honor exceptional teachers who go the extra mile for their students Thursday uh we will be presenting one iPad in a tray of cookies to each of the 10 outstanding teachers across five schools four of which are in my district and one in Mrs W with Phils felices to these teachers um for making a lasting impact also want to thank everyone who made the reginar LA moila which is the midyear schools resupply event a success on November 2nd at conston Middle School Latin quarter provided over 600 backpacks filled with supplies along with jackets haircuts hygiene kits iPads and even bicycles so grateful for Latin quarter board members and especially Dina Rubio and Pastor Jeremy from the light West palal Beach for his entire team going above and beyond special thanks to Mr uh principal Mr Thomas assistant principal Mr orasa for hosting us and working alongside for months Mrs chaparo from uh forestel High School um and her Latinos in Action students for their help with setup and cleanup they were amazing Palm Beach County departments Parks and Recreation Office of community revitalization and victim Services were there the school district's Multicultural education department the migrant education program and Mrs ASO from the Welcome Center were also there Palm Beach uh PBSO you know uh they prepare breakfast thank thank you for that Michael zff for sharing the idea with us and bringing resources and new Partnerships C of West pal Beach police officer Seth boxone he's always there Chris Snider for providing 150 jackets the Children's Services Council for supporting the event through the great ideas initiative Grant and all the community volunteers and over 30 agencies partners partners uh who helped you know make this day possible it was months of preparation and work I was honored to speak with the Latinos in Action students at Lakeworth High School instead of just sharing my story I let them through a personal and professional life plan strategy mini Workshop one of these I gave them encouraging them to reflect on their talents skills and passion I left them with a guide this one right here for creating their own map for Success Through three steps create a vision draft a plan and take action thank you to teacher the La Cruz for the invitation also want to recognize uh Bach Middle School for the Arts for earning the force spot among Florida's uh public middle schools thanks to Mrs Susie Diaz for her outstanding work with the Box foundation and um looking forward to getting to know all my teachers in District in the schools in District Two I wish um everybody a happy and safe Thanksgiving thank you I made it Mrs 15 seconds left thank you very much um so I wanted to uh first of all this is such a good time of year to to thank the one of the most important people to me here at the district who is Miss Angela Santa Cruz um she has been my assistant for a few years now um and she's absolutely my right-hand person and I just want to say as we you know start another year together um how grateful I am for her service and for really just um guessing what I'm thinking most of the time which is pretty impressive and catching me when I'm uh about to make a mistake she's wonderful for that so and scheduling my entire life poor thing um but I want to just say um in this Spirit of Thanksgiving I want to thank her and to thank all the assistants in our office who really spend a lot of time um making sure that we all are where we need to be when we need to be there and and keeping everything peaceful so thank you also to miss Sinclair um because she does so much work for us um couple of things I wanted to mention beyond that um I do want to recognize um Dr Adam Miller who um just really blew me away this week when I saw on Facebook that he posted that he is now the new Village of Palm Beach council member just without running for office he uh just qualified and nobody ran against him it's the best way to win uh highly recommend it and I think uh you are just an incredible person in our district and I just wanted to give you uh just a real congratulations for um taking the time to serve your community I think it's a wonderful wonderful thing and I'm so glad that you're going to be um up here polit politicking with the rest of us in in the community so I'm thrilled about that um and then I have some pictures I wanted to show this is a really a cool thing that has happened in the last year that I was a big part of um so in uh there's an organization called Nuka um and it's Nuka of South Florida it's a professional trade Association that represents underground utility contractors and their suppliers in the south Florida area this construction industry has an aging Workforce like many of the or organizations here and there are no career Pathways specific to Underground Construction in any of the trade schools or high schools um so students from this community um have been able to to take advantage of this um program that we are now doing through our adult education uh program thank you so much to Mr Fred bch and um AP Ron pek at parkvista high school this takes place down there that's where their class is and they're learning about construction career and opportunities and job placement upon completion of this course students are learning about installing pipes and fittings asphalt paving concrete machinery and how careers in this industry can be rewarding and they will have their OSHA 10 certification upon completion and that picture is another thing I have to thank the district for um they asked if they could have a space where they could dig up one of our properties and just kind of destroy it and put in a bunch of pipes and then take them out again just for practice and so thank you to Mr Burke and Mr Sanchez for making that happen so that was a lot um by our uh by our northtech site that the students were able to go and actually practice so I just think it was such a really great idea for us to be able to listen to the needs of the community and then help to provide a program so that we get employees so these are adult programs employees that could go and and immediately be working in their field so I was very proud of that partnership and the work with the Nuka of South Florida so thank you so much to everyone here who made that happen and to the board members of Nuka for allowing me to participate in this um development of a new program within our system so to everyone out there Happy Thanksgiving I hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends please be safe enjoy your week off um and I'm looking forward to seeing you as we get ready for the rest of the holiday season thank you thank you Miss Branch thank you I just want to reiterate again to superintendent Burke how wonderful as I mentioned in my speech everyone was on the onboarding just like Matt said again fantastic everybody professional nice on the ball you have a great team I just want to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving and uh thankful we live in a beautiful country of America thank you thank you Mr Ferguson that was quick guess I'll be quick today too you don't need to be all right well I'll bar some of your time so Happy Thanksgiving to everyone I only have two two events to uh discuss with the community today last week uh members of Omega Sai Fraternity Incorporated went to three of the schools in Rivier Beach uh specifically Washington West Riviera and Bon to read to the students as part of our achievement week um we have some photos there that's an interesting photo right there there was one young lady who wanted to write her name she was insistent on me allowing her to write her name on the board I did that but then 20 other little 5-year-olds wanted to write their name on the board too so I have a follow-up date with the students in that class so that we can all practice writing our first and last names um but it was a great event want to thank Dr Murray Miss Granger uh and Dr I'm glad I borrow some of your time uh Dr mcnight at West Rivier for opening their doors um I really appreciate principles who take time to look for additional Community Partners to help accentuate and optimize the educational experience of the students at their schools uh secondly uh second I just want to mention that project uplift we're going to be meeting at heart and soul Park which is at 609 8th Street in West Palm Beach on Saturday December 7th at 8:00 a.m. um as you all know we do this every every month except for November um it's a great opportunity for students to uh get uh three hours up to three hours of community service a great opportunity for parents and concerned citizens to come out and help beautify uh City of West Palm Beach also I mentioned to you that project uplift uplift has grown by Leaps and Bounds and we're going to be in belglade in January as well and my good member from District Six will be out there as well um garbage can and Pickers and toe so it's really just becoming an awesome event it's also something that's taking root in other counties as well I'm leveraging my positions and influence amongst the fraternity to do this in other counties of the state as well and hopefully we can ultimately get it to where it's almost a national event as well so um if you have time the Flyers there uh hope to see you there as well uh and with that I'm going to be like Miss Branch and leave I've been substitute teaching every day there's way too many stories it would go over my five minutes yeah so thank you thank you Vice chair Andrews and thank you but before I begin my pictures I'd like to say thank you to the Santa Lucius High School Chiefs the band you were fabulous today uh playing the national anthem this is what it's all about in our children and I want to congratulate my new board members you're awesome I'm just so excited to be able to work with you all you bring such a wealth of knowledge and we're a great team so congratulations to you and I want to thank the veterans uh I want to say you know we're here and we're free in America because of you and we celebrate you and Mr Burke I saw the wonderful program that we had here at the district I had an opportunity to go to some schools and just every day we thank you Veterans for all that you've done to keep America great to keep us safe and lastly thanks to the public for the half cent sales tax thank you for making the difference for our children so that we can have the things that we need to move forward now some School news Sor Ridge High School construction media day Simo Ridge High School has completed the 11th house with Habitat for Humanity uh the Weiss construction Academy along with the Hardy construction Mr Burke and I were there for the media day media day we saw Zach Thomas but we saw all of the children building the house that was most impressive and we're excited we met the owner of the house lots of pictures were taken everyone's excited the keys for the owner will be coming to her very soon the house will be dedicated in the next few months and the Village of Wellington my district you're awesome with everything that you do for key spelli the check presentation the grant presentation $337,000 for each School in the Wellington area a total of $47,000 to the schools these dollars are used to support our students who are working to be able to improve in their academics uh we knew key she was one of our employees keeping her Legacy alive with those grants thank you Village of Wellington Village Council and all that you do also we uh had a proclamation that night for PM Beach Central High School AP Mr Willow Lewis uh I like you Mr Lewis seems like you get a whole whole lot of things done and we had our first annual homecoming for Palm Beach Central and the Village of Wellington proclaimed that you are a superstar over at that school uh saluting the soldiers uh with the parade for homecoming doing amazing work at the school so we're really really proud of you uh Mr Lewis and also pom Central High School you're on a roll right now with the holiday food collection challenge Championship I don't know if we're seeing any of the pictures where you got the big trophy that you beat Wellington out again this year with raising uh money gaining uh canned goods and foods for the hungry during the holiday season and I want to say uh Mr Burke the Thanksgiving dinner that we had here at the district was lovely I was just so pleased to be in attendance with all of our District staff here that came down to celebrate to say thank you we all have to be thankful every every day but especially during Thanksgiving and I wrote out to pooki Last Friday because they always have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration uh Miss Barbara Johnson uh School Food Service absolutely fabulous she does the best turkeys I don't know if she fries them or bakes them or whatever and the and the uh potato pies everything that they do there is so great for all of the staff and the children celebrating Thanksgiving so it's a time to be thankful for not just a food but for having friends and family and we say Happy Thanksgiving to all thank you thank you and so I want to start off by thanking my colleagues for the honor and privilege to serve once again as your board chair um I appreciate it very much and I normally I don't like to repeat things because by the time you get to me it just sounds redundant but I do want to welcome our newest board members to team Palm Beach you're going to find that we may not always agree with each other but we are collaborative we're a team and we're not only friends but we're family so welcome aboard I look forward to working with all of you up here um every month thanks to um HCA Florida health we have our thank a teacher event and so on October 23rd um hopefully they're going to run the video we thanked Kristen Santiago we surprised her a first grade teacher at Sunset Palm so hopefully they have the video [Music] hi my name is Kristen Santiago and I'm a teacher here at Sunset Palms Elementary we're going to going be doing it's never boring he did the Monster Mash I teach kids how to read every day beach balls good I do love what I do and it's very gratifying being a teacher so I want you to blend it out you know when they come into my classroom they know that they're family I'm strict in a sense where because I have high expectations but I'm also loving I can create a positive impact on their life it makes me feel very good knowing that you know I'm a part of their Learning Journey just making sure that no matter what they feel safe and loved and heard I'm going to help them learn and grow in any way that I you know possibly can congratulations Mrs Santiago you are this week's s a teacher winner oh my God the reason why I nominated him in Santiago is because she is the Fantastic role model we thank you every day for all that you do your school board loves you so I had the best example growing up my mom was a second grade teacher at Discovery K Elementary School her name was Mary Valera she was an amazing teacher and I always strive to be the kind of teacher that my mom was I definitely try to leave each day of you know trying to honor my mom and her memory and to be a wonderful [Music] teacher nominate next so I will end with one redundancy I want to wish everybody a very Happy Thanksgiving we all have so much to be thankful for we're very blessed and so with that I'm that will bring us now to our presentation um M na Nim from the communications and engagement Department joins us for the November board recognitions board members we can all go down to the floor good evening chair Brill Vice chair Andrews board members superintendent Burk staff and community members and this evening we have one recognition on the agenda uh earlier this year the school district of Palm Beach County was named a model for equity and excellence in Cambridge implementation since the partnership between the district and Cambridge began in 2008 the district has been exemplary in its commitment to providing Equitable access to high quality educ ation for all students as a nod to this excellent work we received the District of the Year award from Cambridge twice in the past 6 years now in 2024 Cambridge wanted to provide a unique recognition for the district's dedication to increasing access to Cambridge programs and achieving extraordinary results in the process since the partnership began the district has demonstrated remarkable growth and success we have expanded the implementation of cambridge's aligned multi-year curriculum in 57 of our schools our well established feeder patterns are engaging more students than ever providing them the opportunity to get involved and succeed with cambridge's challenging coursework Cambridge has marveled at The District's thoughtful and Innovative plan to open access to Cambridge programs over the last 16 years the district is a wonderful example of what a school district and Community can accomplish with a Unity of purpose sustained over time we are proud to partner with Cambridge and look forward to continuing to empower students and transform lives through education we have Representatives here from Cambridge to present the plaque in recognition of the district as a model for equity and excellence in Cambridge implementation uh everyone please welcome Dr Matthew K head of policy accountability and Partnerships and Mr Jeremy Rio senior School imple implementation manager North America region and Mr ril would like to say a few words thank you it really is a pleasure I get to work with all your schools so as she said every year Cambridge recognizes three us school districts as Cambridge districts of the Year award recipients this award is typically based on three years worth of key metrics but when we looked at the data this year we stopped and said okay we need to look a little bit differently because when we look over time and we don't restrict it to three years we found that Palm Beach County leads by far in a number of areas one commitment to serving all students and I emphasize the all it's kind of like the mission and vision there says each student on it that really is important it's not looking at students as this one group of kids who progresses from kindergarten to first grade it's each individual kid in that group and doing what's right for them and Palm Beach county is by far leading in that as when it comes to the Cambridge pathway achieving academic Excellence while providing equity and access to high quality education that's what the name of the game is the model for equity and excellence in Cambridge implementation award is a first time award we've never given it before but we decided that this was a necessary recognition for really just Excellence over time and so this is for continuous commitment to providing all students with access to highquality education via the Cambridge pathway it means that nearly every year nearly 50% of your Advanced students your high school students are enrolled in a Cambridge course that's every year so over time that means likely that every single high school student has access to at least one Cambridge course before they grad graduate over 2,000 candidates earn the Cambridge Ace diploma which I know you're familiar with but that's tied to Florida Bright Futures we can do all the fund math of $35,000 a year times 2,000 students and we get a bunch of millions right that's a lot of scholarship money but what's really impressive is over 2,000 students makes up 25% of the students who earn the Cambridge Ace diploma in the North American region that's really impressive so all that access has largely been met with achievement as well right we've increased entries in exams by 28% and 10% more candidates over time have been given access to taking an exam but with that you have remained in the top five achieving districts for large school districts in the US as well so it's that myth of if we open this up Pass rates will plummet that has not been what's been demonstrated here in Palm Beach County so along with all of that there has to be a commitment to teaching and learning Palm Beach County leads in professional development and they lead in the purchase of and use of Cambridge resources to support their teachers so that they can deliver that program to a diverse group of students so with that we are very proud to partner with Palm Beach County and we see you as a model to the commitment for all students for each student [Applause] congratulations e you thank you Cambridge and let's have a round of applause for the district as a model for equity and excellence in Cambridge [Applause] implementation all right board chair bril Vice chair Andrews board members superintendent staff and members of the community this concludes the recognitions for November thank you everyone for your attention this evening thank you very much that's going to bring us now to our Student Government report Ms mirisola good evening superintendent Burke chairwoman bur Vice chairwoman Andrews members of the board and esteemed members of the general public I'm delighted to be here this evening to provide another update on our ongoing efforts and initiatives within the Palm Beach County student government Community following our recent successes I'm pleased to share some exciting developments concerning the Palm Beach hunger initiative in our student government's impactful role in it as you may recall the Palm Beach hunger initiative aims to enhance food security for students across our County to support this Mission former County president fisel and I visited approximately 20 different schools engaging personally with faculty about the importance of this initiative these face-to-face discussions provided invaluable insights and allowed us to inspire them to actively participate in our efforts I'm also happy to report on our second County meeting which was both enjoyable and inspirational Student Government members had the opportunity to collaborate share ideas and gather important information that will inform our future projects the enthusiasm demonstrated during this meeting truly ref reflects the commitment to leadership and advocacy that our Student Government exemplify additionally I want to highlight the student hunger initiative and what's been going on with that a Google form was designed to gather data on student hunger and related issues with our count within our County I'm thror to announce that we have already received 6,124 responses this strong engagement reflects the vital role our students play in recognizing and addressing food insecurity in their schools the data we collect will help us identify patterns and develop targeted strategies for improvement in conclusion I want to express my gratitude to each and every one of you for your ongoing support and collaboration thank you for your attention I look forward to working together to make a lasting impact in Palm Beach County thank you thank you thank thank you very much so that's now going to bring us to our committee reports um the first one is the academic advisory committee Laura Felman is the chair Laura come on up okay I don't see her here okay um we don't have an audit committee report the construction oversight Review Committee report is attached to your agendas the district diversity and Equity committee Charmaine postal chair good evening board chair superintendent staff and everyone in your respective places um welcome to all the new board members and good to see the other the seasoned ones back on behalf of the DDC excuse me on behalf of the ddec during this Thanksgiving season we just want to recognize and thank uh Mr Keith oswal Janina Simmons and Sue hos claw we also want to give a special recognition to sue hos claw as this is probably her last DDC meeting um on Thursday so we want to recognize her on a job well done and best wishes on her future endeavors sorry I'm short of breath guys um the DDC is looking forward to working with all of our new board members and as such our October report is we met here at the school board meeting it was a one it was wonderful seeing many familiar faces as well as some new faces the DDC kicked off with the high school best practices from director of safe schools Melissa Patterson um principal Alina Vilano from lakew worth high school and Corey Brooks from William T dwire high school we also continued our tradition of presentations from agencies that makes up the ddec every month we receive a presentation from each of the agencies that makes up the ddec where we learn a lot about who the agencies are what they do how they support our school and how they support the community our two presentations was from ELO Jupiter as well as ELO Jupiter Susan webeck and FAU card Sabrina Deo Additionally the DDC received an update from the DDC ad hoc subcommittee several topics were discussed including the school survey results and their implic implications our next DDC meeting is November 21st here in the Board Room this concludes my school board meeting I've been battling with whatever is going around for the last two weeks so I'm just now getting better but I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and continue to work with each and every one of you in this room have a good day thank you so that's going to bring us to general council's report do you have a report for us today no report thank you thank you Inspector General do you have a report for us I just want to congratulate the new board members I look forward to working with you as I have with the other board members and the executive management and wish everybody Happy Thanksgiving hey thank you so that's going to bring us to our elected officials and delegates I'll call two names at a time first we have D James gabos president CEO of the Education Foundation and he'll be followed by Erica hen vice president Junior Achievement of Palm Beach Treasure Coast Madame chair superintendent Burke Vice chair uh Marsh Andrews members of the school board especially those of you uh recently sworn in uh James Gillis and I am the CEO of your Education Foundation I'll be meeting with each of the three new board members in the next month to give you an overview of our work more than you hear in these four-minute reports I'm pleased to say that we're quickly approaching January 30th celebrate the great where we will honor the pr principal of the Year assistant principal of the Year teacher of the year and School District employee of the year what's important about this year's celebrate the great is not what the event is but where following the ribbon cutting in our new facility on January 16th this year celebrate the great will be held at the Center for Public School excellence and Innovation our new facility which is done the contractors are gone and we are actually moving our things into the building even as we speak so we look forward to seeing everybody at the center on January 30th speaking of the center as they work through the it issues I have to share with you it it really is going to be incredible uh open to the school district for use for Teacher professional development Our IT people pulled me aside and said we're having a problem with your your dongle uh I got concerned and immediately called my cardiologist in my insurance company my insurance company said well you're an idiot and that's a pre-existing condition so we don't cover that uh the point here being we're going to have high-tech uh so our teachers can participate in these events wherever they may be uh a brief word about our stock the shelves initiative our goal is to get those shelves we have 750 slots in our warehouse our 20,000 ft warehouse and we've reached out to the business Community uh for $250 people can sponsor a teacher shop and many of our local Champions are are giving generously we want to make sure that warehouse is filled when we open up on January 16th so we can serve our teachers uh one final note as we are in this transition I appreciate many of your wishes for Thanksgiving on Thursday down at the 10 building we will be having our Thanksgiving dinner the Education Foundation is sponsoring that dinner as not only Thanksgiving but our farewell and Madame chair I want to say this to Sean kulie uh and to all of his predecessors Angela Kate uh Jordan Amy since our move to the 10 building five years ago they could not have been more gracious more hospitable or more welcoming and so as we move off I want to thank the communication team Shan for all that you do to make our life go so smooth and to help us tell our story part of that story is the digital inclusion plan which we have been spearheading for the last four and a half years I bring to the microphone now the our part-time member well known to you who's been running that Mr Mark Howard Mr Howard thank you James it's an honor to continue to serve the community Through the Education Foundation I'm excited to announce to you tonight that we are initiating a parent and family engagement program at Lenna Middle School um in coordination with Mr Burke the principal at Lana Middle School um each week uh for six months we will provide a class for families that includes child care food um and translation services with the goal of building relationships between the families and the school and Educators empowering the families as Educators connecting the families to digital resources and promoting family well-being um we have uh a a curriculum laid out where parents can come in um as I said they'll be made comfortable using their phones we're going to equip them with the tools and the resources provided by the district to stay up to-date on their child's education for attendance and grades communicating with teachers and the calendar um we know that those types of activities um raise the child as well as the family and the school so thank you very much thank you gentlemen but just stay up there for one minute Mr Galos so it's uncomfortable for me to say but we did indulge you tonight and according to our policy you're not allowed to bring people up to speak during your time so so we indulge you we didn't want to shut down Mr Howard but just you know going forward I didn't want to cut the conversation but please duly noted for the future I'm afraid of Mark I wouldn't cut him off either so thank thank you thank you so much um Erica h are you here okay I don't see her Sylvia Hall PTA PTSA president and Mabel Melton vice president of the Hispanic education Coalition good evening um um Sylvia Hall uh president of the Palm Beach County PTA and I would like to start like I always start every every meeting with the our PTA Mission uh our mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and Empowering Families and communities to advocate for all children I would like to welcome the three new members to the school board congratulations Gloria Branch Matthew Jay Lane and Virginia saveto benen FES I would like to mention a couple of things that happened in these past couple of weeks Amendment one the partisan School B elections Amendment didn't reach the 60% threshold or it didn't pass Florida PTA has urged not to vote no on this amendment so we are glad that it didn't pass um we would like to congratulate the pish uh County um parents for passing the uh the half penny referendum but not only that it passed in in pan Beach but around Florida there were other 19 local referendums to increase Public Funding in the form of mileage and sales were passed so that that uh shows a strong support for public schools across the state um what is new with our County PTA we have been doing a lot of local units training part of our of my of our work as a County Board is to train local units on how to meet the requirements to keep our organizations as section 501c3 nonprofit so we've been doing all of that um other than that I think I'm done for today uh thank you very much I would like to you know say happy thanks Thanksgiving for everybody uh and I will see you next next month thank you thank you Mabel Melton are you here okay I don't see her okay on behalf of the entire school board I would like to welcome any public speakers who are joining us today our policy provides that we do not respond to or engage with our speakers however we do make a note of your issues and we follow up with the District administration regarding them as a reminder agenda item speakers comments must relate to the subject matter of the agenda item which the speaker has requested to address additionally all non-agenda speakers comments must relate to educationally relevant topics or the operations of the school district pursuant to Schoolboard policy speakers whose comments do not relate to the topic that the speaker indicated or are not otherwise educationally relevant as required for non-agenda topics or whose comments disrupt or interfere with the order of the meeting may be subject to removal from the meeting or having the microphone turned off and forfeiting the right to speak at the remainder of today's meeting you will have 3 minutes to address the board in accordance with Schoolboard policy the microphone will be turned off when the time limit has been reached when you speak please state your name for the record we also request that you provide your address School District number or city of residents thank you very much for joining us so tonight we have two agenda item speakers I'm going to call both names and you can come up we have Donald Pearson and Katie Mendoza go ahead Miss Mendoza okay good evening my name is Katie Mendoza I'm one of the PBA attorneys I do the bargaining for the PBA so we as you all most of you know um we represent the unit of officers and sergeants your police officers at the school district and I just wanted to speak on the contract item you guys are going to vote on the contract it was ratified by the members but I just wanted to bring to your attention we learned today that they're not going to get their raise until December 20th and then the Retro date is January 17th and usually the raise is imposed or given like right away and then the Retro is given within that same following month so I just wanted to bring that to all of y'all's attention because we've already been getting a lot of calls on that topic so and then I know that we did sign up for General comment so I'm going to reserve that and we do have some members here as well thank you thank you uh good evening Don Pearson uh West Palm Beach um 43 years in the county I'm going to speak about the breakdown of separation of uh employment and um the reasons uh so um today I want to address the critical issues facing our our County the reasons why teachers are leaving as well as the data presented on the matter um according to channel 12 U the consensus that be that student beave behavior is a primary cause of teacher departures indeed the overwhelming evidence suggests that however the data that we have doesn't mention any of that um we uh examine the data uh this doesn't appear anywhere uh the numbers indicate just a few cases of dissatisfaction uh right off the list three for um you know the dissatisfied with the job five for dissatisfaction action to pay for for dissatisfaction with the supervisors with 12,000 employees um these figures seem a little questionable uh to an outside Observer these numbers might suggest our county is extraordinary well managed but that doesn't reflect reality at one school alone uh there's over a dozen teachers that have left within the the year and um some site to satisfaction with the super U supervision it would be benei beneficial um to conduct exit polls uh for all departing teachers ensuring honesty and transparency uh in the process this would enable us to provide accurate data to the public revealing the true reasons teachers decide to stay or to leave um additionally while the county claims that discipline issues are decreasing this may may not be entirely accurate discipline incidents may be under reported possibly uh influenced by the way principles evaluate and factor in suspensions for years I've urged the board uh to prioritize transparency transparency and accuracy uh when reporting data only with truthful information can we continue to to work in the profession we love without fear of misleading information so again I just you're The Gatekeepers and we just need accurate data and it goes against that report and like I said I don't see there's when you look on on the the uh website uh it's very very few people are dissatisfied which would be great thank you thank you board members that brings us to the consent agenda okay scrolling down um we have two items that are under the consent agenda that we'll be voting on um we'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Miss Branch any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimous ly and actually the consent agenda did include those two Grant items so I'm going to I'll take a separate vote for that because it says here that it's under consent okay so it was covered I've never seen it broken out like that before so we're good that brings us to new business brd1 which is board member travel as soon as my computer Comes Alive okay I recom recommend that the board approve and confirm School Board member Virginia sav's travel as submitted and that it meets the requirement to Florida statute 1000 1.39 effective July 1st 2019 motion by Vice chair Andrew second by Mrs Whitfield any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously that brings us to brd2 I recommend that the board approve and confirm board member Matthew Lan's travel as sub Ed and that it meets the requirements of Florida statute 101.39 effective July 1st 2019 motion by Ms Branch second by uh Mrs Whitfield any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously that brings us to brd3 I recommend the board approve and confirm School Board member Gloria Branch's travel is submitted and that it meets the requirements of Florida statute 101.39 effective July 1st 2019 motion by Mr Lane second by Miss Whitfield any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously that brings us now to C2 Mr superintendent I recommend the board Proclaim November 2024 is homeless child and youth Awareness Month motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Miss Branch any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously I recommend the board proclaimed November 2024 is Native American Heritage Month a motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Vice chair Andrews any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously lr1 I recommend the school board approved the modifications to collective bargaining agreement with the Palm Beach County Police benevolent Association PBA as indicated in the attached T agreements and pending ratification a motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Vice chair Andrews any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously and just for the record that ratification took place it was finalized yesterday and it was approved by PBA um LR2 I recommend the school board approve the salary increases for the employees formally represented by the Association of educational secretaries and office professionals motion by Mr Lane second by Miss Whitfield any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously I recommend the school board approve the Personnel addendum as submitted motion by Mrs Whitfield second by miss saveto any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously that's now going to bring us to our non-agenda speakers so I'll start I'm going to call two names at a time so that the second person can be ready and I apologize UPF front if I mispronounce any names so please forgive me um Mike Kennedy and then Jeremy Campbell if you're here come on up to the microphone okay Cesar tahada and Tom Jordan go ahead sir hello good evening good evening to the board I want to thank everyone for your time I'm here as on behalf of the PBA your name please Caesar T laki I'm here on behalf of the PBA to show support for the fellow officers uh serving the uh School Board it's extremely important to continue to give these officers raises um we want to stress the fact that these guys keep our students and our um staff members safe every single day and uh we want to avoid uh the officers coming into the school board and becoming uh a training ground for other police departments where they can uh train here and then move on to other departments where they can serve so we want to avoid that we want to continue to give races and compete with the other departments in the county I want to thank you for your time Happy Thanksgiving thank you hi Thomas Jordan a member of the pal Beach County PBA also worked for Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office last 23 years and I'm here to talk about the police officers next year for your negotiations um the police officers are the ones who take care of all your children if they go to school here they're looking out for the safety of your children two months ago there was a a a middle school gfk middle school where they they found a gun I mean if this gun was loaded if somebody came in there and shot one of their children you're going to be looking at these police officers offers to come and take that person down now in order to get these police officers up to par with everybody else from pal Beach County right now the starting salary of pal be sheriffs is $73,500 I think it's 8,000 less for a school board please for a 12 monther um I think it's worth the money especially with all the additional money we have in the referenda you get an additional half half a cent tax this year um I really would like for you guys to look at this the next year's um bargaining agreement and really give them a push up there so they can compete with the other uh agencies in addition um there was um somebody had a question about the special risk what's the special risk for police officers for the spe police officers it's a retirement system for law enforcement officers and Public Safety employees perform physically demanding and mentally challenged work the class recognizes that these employees may need to retire early due to physical or mental limitations that they may suffer through economic hardships so being a high-risk officer there's a lot more involved than um maybe some of the other employees in the Palm Beach County where they they don't carry guns they don't carry mates they don't carry tasers they don't put the life on the on the line every day to protect the children of pal Beach County so really maybe next year when we negotiate with you guys think about bringing their pay up to the other agencies here in Palm Beach County thank you thank you Michael Lynch and Alfonso brat good evening welcome to the uh to the new board members I'm here to today again to speak on the raise that has been imposed Spate your name I'm sorry oh I'm sorry um Michael Lynch Lakeworth thank you um welcome to the new board members I'm here today again to speak on a raise that has been imposed on US every year we have to go through the same song and dance to get a raise every year we go back and forth on how much we deserve it's not the fact that we don't deserve the raise we are asking for but the fact that we have to wait and see what you give everyone else with a fear it won't be Equitable now I understand education is our main priority it is a school district but everyone's value is not Equitable everyone brings something different to the table and had different responsibilities our priority is the safety of students and staff we run to the danger while everyone else locks down waiting for us to come back to give the all safe our workload has increased tremendously and Carries and crimes on campuses have increased just as much as Society can only exist when the foundation of Public Safety is laid educ can only take place if the Cornerstone of safety is a safe environment that's planted the question I ask of you is why are we being compared to everyone in a district versus other agencies yes on paper starting pay is Equitable but that's where it ends thank you have a great Thanksgiving thank you Alonso Brad if you're here and then we have Matt dejoy and Joe laau are any of you here no okay Katie Mendoza come on up okay thank you um Katie Mendoza again Palm Beach County PBA right around the corner on Mango Road um so and thank you guys for speaking they didn't have to come tonight so thank you a few of them got called out and one son is in the hospital so thank you for having us um I just want to introduce myself we wanted to come congratulations to the three new members um we like to have open dialogue with you all and I thought it's time to just start coming and giving that dialogue so as you all know you voted on the contract um we had an impass hearing two weeks ago um our members did vote for it you know it passed you know that's that's good if it didn't it would have been imposed so but we want to keep working forward for a better Police Department um we just want to note that as of today the PD was staffed at I think 252 that's including Command Staff you're budgeted for 315 so you're around 65 short that's 20% I think the last meeting we heard that teachers were down 2% so it's your only unit like 12 or 13,000 compared to um your unit of about 240 So 20% is a big number to be down um I I know that the district phrased their argument as needs versus wants it's a need you need better pay for your men and women who put their lives on the line Mike works I don't want to say where he works but he had at least um five instances that I know of where he found a gun they handle the same kinds of crime they handle the same kind of Investigations that all of my other men and women handle at these other agencies I represent Boon I do a lot of the coastal towns they handle the same dangers that these other men and women handle at all these other places um and 20% down 65 down that's too many that's way too many so um I just wanted to come and introduce myself um again the referendum money it's for the extra Mill and property taxes that's presented every four years a lot of that money it it's Undisputed it can be used for the officers like it can be used for the teachers the teachers get up to $10,000 extra pensionable money every year we would like to see something like that go towards the officers we would like to get that 20% down to staff your PD um we think it's a time for a deep dive into the budget to see where the money's going I think the public has the right to see where it's going school police school safety we hear it all the time I know that's a big priority of all you I think it's time to just you know keep working to build the PD you're one of the few accredited PDS for a school district in the state so we love our men and women I know you do too and um we look forward to working with you thank you thank you Philip S and then Carl Muhammad Philip S lockah haaji good evening board members superintendent Mike Burke members of staff and those in attendance here tonight I a sergeant with the police department of Palm Beach County and I have been in law enforcement for 27 years and I have been with the district over six over these years I have watched the negotiation meetings and interactions between the two sides my own Union has labeled me as a naysayer and misinformed disgruntled employee as I have been outspoken and how I feel about the negotiations have been handled I cannot go back and change these past negotiations but I hope speaking here tonight A found Foundation is laid for future negotiations most individuals do not understand the complexities of police work or even think about law enforcement in general as they go about their day we only make up about 1% of the entire Workforce in the United States the fact remains consistent within the Palm Beach County School District which is the smallest bargaining unit we are comparable to an insurance policy you only think about your insurance policy twice the first time is when you need to renew it and the second time is when disaster strikes we all want the best policy for the best price but we know our rates are going to go up especially here in Florida we pay for protection against loss and hope never need to use it police work is no different the average person encounters two to three critical incidents in their life a police officer is insurance against loss during those critical incidents I understand the main focus of the board in the administration is to provide a high quality education to the children in Palm Beach County Mr Burke and his team are paid at an industry standards for the geographical region they work in they are paid comparable salaries to their counterparts in those regions he sets a vision has his Regional team push his agendas and the principles are tasked with creating an environment that is conducive to his agenda the principle is one individual tasked with a responsibil of making sure their goals are met kids are fed and staff feels welcomed each individual in the in the chain is paid at a comparable rate to their counterparts and other South Florida schools the same should be said for us there is no other position within the palmach county that has the responsibility of being a mentor social worker Diplomat investigator mental health counselor medic security guard lawyer and Warrior every officer in this department has all of these traits I know as I have trained each and every one of these in this department at one time or another I'm the one that teaches them to run towards the bullets while everyone else is Sheltering a place I'm the one who teaches them to put down the threat and then provide medical attention the principal's in charge for the majority of the time but when chaos erupts inside the school we are the ones who take charge you entrust us with all of those things but asked us to accept a below market value uh because other unions will be uh upset with Ras each bargaining unit is independent of each other we understand our responsibilities and accept them but we also accept uh Fair compensation Police recruitment as is at an Alti low and retention rates are even worse any HR person will tell you that the first two years of employment career are their most expensive new equipment training and hiring procedures put heavier Financial strain on the district rather than long-term retention it would be beneficial for the district to retain its officers rather than us keep chasing our tail looking for good recruits as we move forward into negotiations I hope you take a minute and think about all we do we are not asking to be the highest paid officers in the state but we are asking for just compensation thank you thank you Carl Muhammad and I wanted to talk to the new board members as it relates to the most difficult part of your journey which is academics and inside of the State of Florida we have a Florida statue 1342 which is supposed to take care of the African-American Community but many times we never hear anything about the African-American community and their specific needs inside of the educational process that we are rendering here and we don't seem to have any your staff equipped with the not necessary knowledge in order to move us forward so as you move forward I'm going ask you if you prepare attention to the idea of the Florida statue and see if you hear it in in inside of any of the conversation that you have in your board conversations because they dis they destroyed the superintendent task force for African-American children particularly the African-American male and we're not really following up on all of the things that we have prepared for ourselves here in Palm Beach County even tonight I brought you a resolution from your own um School District which is supposed to be on uh accountability and when we look at it we're not following this at all and when we don't hear anything about the African-American Community inside of the conversation you can't continue to say that you're talking about every child you you're you're making a terrible error and we as a community we would like to invite all of you to our um to Riviera Beach if you will to have a serious conversation about African-American children and we're not trying to negate uh take away from anybody else but we have special needs like your um disability children your LGBT and your um dual language and everybody else the U African-American Community have a Florida law that was put into place to address our problem but the school district have ignored it totally and um if I'm in error always always like to give that opportunity to bring someone before us um to challenge me in what I'm saying and when I say what I'm saying the school district haven't been able to um we talk about building schools and building everything else you don't have one child since the law been passed that you can bring forward inside of um the reality of things to show that youve really made some progress and trying to fulfill the Florida statute and when I said it one more time is Florida stature 13428 and it give you all of the specifics and the school district of Palm Beach County have moved um expeditious in that era but the new people don't seem to have that and in this accountability um we have a couple of the Schoolboard members that was involved in that activity and I'm just asking you to reflect on some of those things that are beneficial and when you come to the community we have all of your documentation that we can share with you um so that you can help the africanamerican child thank you for your time thank you Jill Coleman and Nathan Robinson hi I'm Jill Coleman I'm a mother of two ages 8 and 10 I live in Palm Beach Gardens and I used to actually work for big Tech in Silicon Valley and I'm back here again today to ask you to do the same thing get phones out of our schools uh Rebecca another parent who is here tonight and I are actively working with hundreds of parents in Palm Beach County getting them to sign pledges to delay access to social media and smartphones getting our representatives to pass bills like kosa and but we need the administrative of Administrators of our schools to get the phones out of the school so kids have a chance to be away from these highly addictive devices just some new stat since I last spoke with you students without access to cell phones perform 13 to 20% % better on exams according to studies conducted by the London School of Economics a new study explored the efforts of banning smartphones in Norwegian middle schools on student mental health performances post ban girls experienc an almost 60% decrease in the number of mental health consultations bullying incidents also Dro significantly creating a safer School environment for both boys and girls girls GPA and math scores also significantly improved especially for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds we've recently learned Tik Tok knows it takes only 260 videos which can be watched in 35 minutes to form a habit this can be done at lunchtime on another kid's phone we have learned that their algorithms prioritize more attractive people we have learned that they know that their product interferes with essential personal relationships with sleep with school and with connecting with loved ones this weekend the Wall Street Journal also published an article saying how Tech has spent 90 million in the last three years trying to block kids safety bills like kosa they know their products aren't safe and we need them out of our schools and if all this doesn't convince you Tech Executives don't send their kids to schools where there's phones they keep them in low Tech or no Tech schools please implement this policy as as soon as possible we'll continue to invite us when we're Gathering parents together children need our protection this is the most important step you can take to make our schools better is get the phones out of the kids hands and backpacks and into Yonder pouches for the whole school day just like a school in District 2 is doing thank you very much thank you Nathan Robinson Rebecca solz and then Patrick lover Rebecca come on up good evening everyone my name is Rebecca soames I'm a mom in Palm Beach County I have four children ages 9 7 5 and one today I want to also address like Jill just did um the issue that impacts both students and Educators across the globe smartphones in schools while smart smart phones are an essential part of our daily lives there is growing concern about their presence in the classroom smartphones should not be allowed inside schools and I'll explain why first smartphones are powerful devices that can easily divert attention from learning in a 2015 study conducted by the London School of Economics researchers found that when smartphones were banned in schools student test scores improved by an average of 6.4% smartphones can also contribute to cyber bullying a survey by the cyber bullying Research Center revealed that nearly 37% of students reported being victims of online harassment smartphones are highly addictive many students have an extremely difficult time separating from their phones even when they try putting teachers in the unfair position of having to use instructional time to police personal device use can you imagine schools allowing other addictive products like drugs alcohol and cigarettes of course not another critical concern is mental health studies show a clear link between smartphone use and increased rates of anxiety and depression among young people excessive screen time especially on social media has been shown to lead to a distorted sense of self and poor emotional regulation schools should be places where students can focus on learning and Social Development not a source of constant comparison and stress furthermore smartphones pose a significant risk to academic Integrity according to a study published by the international Journal of educational technology 60% of students admitted to using their smartphone to cheat during exams or assignments another alarming statistic is the decline in reading and math scores the most recent issue of the nation's report card revealed the largest decline in reading and math scores observed in the last half century finally allowing smartphones inside schools can undermine the development of important social skills research conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that 30 73% of teens feel that smartphones make it harder for them to communicate face Toof face schools are not only about academic learning they are places where young people develop the social skills necessary to succeed in life constant smartphone use discourages personal interactions and can hinder the growth of emotional intelligence empathy and conflict resolution skills in conclusion while smartphones can be valuable Tools in certain contexts the data clearly shows that they do more harm than good inside schools if we want our students to thrive academically socially and emotionally we need to create spaces spaces where technology does not interfere with their education thank you have a Happy Thanksgiving thank you Patrick lover Mindy henin and Daisy Daniel any of you here okay good thank you hi I'm Mindy henen I'm the new executive director at the PACE Center for Girls pace is a nonprofit organization that believes that all girls regardless of their story deserve a safe and supportive space where they can become strong compassionate and successful women since opening in Palm Beach county in 1996 Pace has positively impacted the lives of 3,000 girls providing them with an opportunity for a better future through education counseling training and advocacy think back to when you were a teenager and the most challenging times that you faced think about friends you had who faced tough times or maybe you were fortunate to have two supportive parents and a wonderful Community but not every girl is so fortunate thank goodness there's a place like pace for girls that have fallen on tough times a center that's built on helping girls only a center staffed by talented compassionate people that care it's staffed by mostly women with a board of mostly women most of our girls can't imagine a bright future for themselves the pay center for girls invests in them and shows them a better path what makes Pace unique is that we are girl centered we focus on strengths and we are trauma informed we understand that if a girl is not doing well in school there's probably other things going on under the surface that need to be addressed we have two signature programs first we have the pace Day program which provides yearr round education counseling and life skills training for middle school and high school girls we are an alternative school program for girls that aren't successful in the traditional Public School System we are listed on the P the school district website under alternative education where there are 13 schools listed we are the only one for girls only we're based in Palm Springs just one mile from here second we have our reach program which is a mental health therapy service offering social emotional and behavior health services for girls ages 11 to 17 and their families our reach therapists offer these services in partnering schools homes and other community locations we go to them we're listed on the school district website under caring first this is all available at no cost a research study conducted in 2019 found that pace nearly doubles the likelihood of girls being on track to graduate from high school as compared to girls with the same risk factors that did not attend Pace we have a wonderful relationship with the Palm Beach County School district and I want to say thank you we do have space available in both the day school program and our reach therapy services so if you can recommend any girls that could benefit from our services we would appreciate it we can all feel good in Palm Beach County that we have the pay center for girls here with us thank you Richard Leeds Daisy Daniel Lynn niib rafani are any of you here I was told if I had paperwork for you that I had to bring seven yeah I'm too short for this okay hi hi my name is Lyn neab rafani this is my husband Charlie rafani I'm going to speak on behalf of both of us because we are a disabled veteran family and um it's better for me to speak for both of us um I am here on oh sorry I am in from bokeh and I am from District 5 and I am here on a completely personal matter um having to do with my son and the way that my School Spanish River treated him during um an investigation I have been trying since September 30th to Garner some kind of action um he was falsely accused of saying something on the bus or outside the bus um what I've provided for you is your parental rights section paperwork and the uh police report from the circumstances that happened I have hit a wall at every possible way the only people that have helped me in any kind of capacity are superintendent Dr lockheart and uh major Jack McCarthy who are the only people that will really return a call or provide any kind of clarity I was forced to um submit uh a complaint against the officer at our school because the report turned out to have a bunch of fallacies and incorrect timing and to make a long story short the administrative office has declined to meet with me so that we could go over what happened I was not allowed to know I was not notified until 10 minutes after school had ended where the administrative office decided to keep my child from his means of transportation and um did not notify me did not include me in the investigation and this had been ongoing since 8 a.m. I they took a sworn statement from my son who is only 14 years old uh without me present without me notified without any kind of interaction Dr Castellano has been nothing but impossible she will not get on the phone until Dr lockart had to force her and when she did she was condescending and rude this is my tone ladies and gentlemen because I am at my Wit's End and I do not believe that tone is indicative of what I am or am not allowed to say to somebody who is not my Superior um that being said I am here to ask for your help because I demand before we are forced to take legal action against the school because we feel that strongly that my son's rights and our rights were violated thank you thank you an Carter and Donald pieron go ahead hi I'm Ann Carter I am here representing the Lakeworth High School alumni Foundation before I go to my prepared remarks I want to point out that Willow Lewis of whom the vice chair spoke so highly Class of 2004 Lake Worth High School so uh I'm here to invite students across Palm Beach County to apply for the Barry gruno Memorial Scholarship the application deadline is March 21st 2025 this scholarship was created in memory of a teacher who was shot to death outside his classroom at Lakeworth Middle School this scholarship actually three of them are awarded annually to 12th grade public private parochial or Charter School students who plan to be teachers the amount of the awards ranges from $1,000 to $5,000 this is a one-time award the requirements for the scholarship are a minimum 2.5 GPA Financial need and teaching as a career goal this goal should be mentioned on the application all applications are completed online at Lakeworth dooll for scholars.org the student will select the Barry gruno scholarship from the droptown menu when applying students be sure to upload your transcript to your application have your counselor log on to the site to complete the counselor portion and his or her recommendation on the application list your counselor is the recommender please note that you will not need to complete the fava prior to completing the application this year a few facts about Dollars for Scholars in 1999 when Dollars for Scholars was created at lakew worth High School the organization awarded a total of $10,000 to 15 Lakeworth high school students last spring 50 that's 5 recipients were selected to receive $101,000 in scholarships this is possible because many alumni and community members have stepped up to endow scholarships Dollars for Scholars has awarded more than 1.7 million in scholarship since its Inception 25 years ago the alumni Foundation plays an important role as it raises the funds that support Dollars for Scholars operations as one of our presidents loved to point out every dime donated for scholarships goes to scholarships because the foundation pays the administrative and other expenses for Dollars for Scholars thank you for your time and have a Happy Thanksgiving thank you uh good evening again Don Pearson West palom Beach um tonight I'm going to discuss another uh issue concerning relationships between assistant principles teachers Administration teachers and um again it seems timely so um I want to discuss uh the concerning uh the accountability and the behavior of school administrators recently I've experienced what seems like retaliation you remember last month I talked about the more I advocate the bigger the target seems like people were watching that because well I've been some targeted pretty good uh for this last month let me give you an example first off I'll tell you how it how it happened I asked for a public records request a few years ago on a different item to get to find out the finances of coaches and in doing that I found uh how many coaches were uh in the hole in the red in their uh Sports and one particular coach was $11,000 in the Hole uh he thought that I was coming after him I was not coming after him it was a different issue with the administration uh that uh administrator uh was a teacher on assignment u a Dean became an AP and uh our relation ship kind of when he was a tosa he would come in the room and try to evaluate me and I'd say he listen you're you're a tosa that's not your job so maybe that's that's the issue well he's now without any real experience in the classroom is an AP he's about 10 years in the system I'm 43 he's part of the reason I float now which I just it's a hassle but I do that and the constant uh berating and coming after me is definitely a Target uh what is interesting is when he was the coach and thought I was he was coming after me his assistant another teacher who threatened me last year and there's a police report and at the end of last year this teacher threatened another colleague and there's a police report nothing's been done so uh is it because he runs interference I don't know but I do know that he's told me uh that because I had a teacher cover one of my classes that we do all we've done that for years so we don't have to get a sub he wants me to take all that time off my um sick time which I will do but he's targeting me what makes it time that happens to be Willow thank you sorry that brings us to the end of our agenda so I will take a motion to adjourn motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Miss Branch any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously again from all of us on the board to all of you have a very Happy Thanksgiving for --------- ##VIDEO ID:H31o2mpTEW0## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right if everyone would please find a seat we're going to get started in a minute do you what is this yours or something legendary principal she's retired but e of allegiance The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by our general counsel Miss Sean Bernard pledge aliance to the flag the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you as superintendent of schools it is my duty and honor to preside over the special meeting for board reorganization as Secretary of the school board as stipulated in Florida Statutes first we'll have the oath ceremony which will include our newly elected school board members Matthew Lane district one Virginia saveto district 2 and Gloria Branch District 5 following the oath ceremony they will each have an opportunity to make comments we will then then move to the organizational portion of the meeting which will include the election of the school board chair and vice chair once the Voting is complete I will turn the meeting over to the board chair who will preside over the remainder of the meeting we are happy to have three judges here today for the swearing in ceremony The Honorable Jamie Goodman from the 15th judicial circuit will swear in Mr Matthew Lane The Honorable Dalia Weiss will swear in Miss Virginia saveto and The Honorable Richard AAL aidol sorry about that will swear in Miss Gloria Branch a huge welcome and thank you for all participating in this important event you guys join me in Round of Applause for our honorable judges thank you will our three newly elected board members please proceed to the front of the Das where you'll be joined by judges Weiss Goodman and offed all and when you're ready you may begin with district one Matthew LAN Mr Matthew Lane is joined by his lovely wife his son welcome all right are we ready for the swearing in we are your honor all right please raise your right hand I Matthew Lane I Matthew Lane do solemnly swear to solemnly swear that I will support that I will support protect and defend protect and defend the Constitution the Constitution and government of the United States and government of the United States and of the State of Florida and of the State of Florida that I am duly qualified that I duly qualified to hold office to hold office under the Constitution under the constitution of the State of the State and that I will well and that I will well and faithfully and Faithfully perform the duties perform the duties of Palm Beach County School Board member of Palm Beach County Schoolboard member on which I am now about to enter on which I'm now about to enter so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you [Applause] honor thank you so much congratulations board member Lane we'll now move on to District 2 Miss Virginia saveto and judge Weiss also welcome Miss sav's family raise your right hand repeat after me I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support protect protect and defend and defend the Constitution the Constitution and government of the United States and government of the United States and of the State of Florida and of the State of Florida that I am duly qualified that I am duly qualified to hold office to hold office under the constitution of the State under the constitution of the state and that I will and that I will well in Faithfully will and Faithfully perform the duties perform their duties of Palm Beach County of Palm Beach County School Board member School Board member of which I am now of which I am now about to enter about to enter so help me God so help me God congratulations congratulations board member saveto that'll bring us to board member Goya branch and Doge offed all Miss Branch is joined by her family as well you all set yes sir please raise your right hand repeat after me I Gloria Branch I Gloria branch do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support protect and defend protect protect and defend the Constitution the Constitution and government of the United States and government of the United States and of the State of Florida and of the State of Florida that I am duly qualified that I duly qualified to hold office to hold office under the Constitution under the constitution of the State of the State and that I will well and that I will well and Faithfully perform and Faithfully perform the duties of the duties of Palm Beach County School Board member Palm Beach County School Board member on which I am now of which I am now about to enter about to to enter so help me God so help me God congratulations 30 years later congratulations board member Branch uh just for our audience we're going to move into our reorganization meeting but we expect to have a break between the reorg meeting and our regular meeting at 5:00 P PM so it'll be time for pictures with family members and whatever you want to do in that in that gap between the two meetings uh now that our our newly elected board members are joining us on the Das we're going to uh hear comments from each of them and we will start with district one Mr Matthew Lane thank you I want to begin by thanking my friends and family for helping me win the seat on the school board this job is the opportunity of a lifetime I will have the ability to make a difference in the lives of over 170,000 students in a generation of children it's a dream come true and I couldn't have done it without you I want especially thank my wife and best friend Susan three weeks ago our son Stephen was talking about how hard she was working on the campaign and I told him that as he grows older and is looking for somebody to marry he needs to find someone just like his mother because she's as kind and insightful as she's beautiful as it's said in chapter 31 of Proverbs Susan is an Eed Kyle a woman of Valor and I couldn't have done it without her help and her guidance I also want to thank my son Stephen Stephen is one of the most strategic thinkers that I know he's the bill bellich of sons he sees the field and he knows exactly which play to call we wouldn't have won this race without his thoughtful analysis on so many occasions and finally for those of you who supported me through this long and very very difficult campaign I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart I appreciate you more than you will ever know and I will strive to make you proud as I take on this important responsibility I want to briefly share with you two insights that I learned during the course of this campaign first you can run a completely Clean Campaign that you can be proud of where you never send out a disparaging text or email or piece of printed material and still Garner 60,000 votes and win the race by over 10,000 votes second in this polarized environment where friends aren't speaking to friends and family members can't sit together in peace at a Thanksgiving dinner table you can run a campaign where you build a coalition of Republicans NPA and Democrats and win an election because I believe that this is what most of us in our country are looking for I want to end by acknowledging the school board members that the three of us are replacing Frank Barbieri has served on this board for 16 years he was chair for eight of those years Frank is truly the face of the school district he's a brilliant and caring individual who gave us everything for the children of our district Barbara mcquinn started as an instructional Aid in the school district taught math was a principal an area superintendent and finally served on this board with distinction when you look at the word educator in the dictionary there should be a picture of Barbara next to it finally Alex Aela has been a strong and forceful intellectual voice on the school board they and our exceptional superintendent Mike Burke have worked tirelessly for art our children now I've watched these Schoolboard meetings for over a year and a half so I know all of you and it's now my privilege to have the opportunity to work with the members of this board and I want the members of this board to know that whenever there's anything that I can do for you or constituents please let me know I'll be there for you it's my hope that as the years go by that we be much more than colleagues I hope that we'll be friends thank you very much [Applause] thank you board member Lane that'll bring us to District Two Miss Virginia saveto bues good afternoon thank you for being here today I am so grateful to stand before or sit before you as a newly sworn board member this is such an important moment in my life but today is not just about me it's about all of us and what we can achieve together together for over 20 years I have had the honor of working alongside so many of you whether through my roles in the community uh education or supporting local initiatives one thing has always been clear our strength is in our Unity I am very excited to bring that same Spirit of collaboration to my new role on the school board I have a lot to be grateful for first and foremost I thank God for giving me the strength and the wisdom to do the right things even when it was hard I want to express my deepest thanks to my parents my mom who's in Argentina and my dad and theep mom who are here thank you for your incredible sacrifice you came to this country in the 1980s you faced language barriers and cultural challenges and worked tiredly to create a better future through your hard work perseverance and determination you made a life here and because of that I am where I am today your sacrifice has paid off gracias sacrificios and to my son Luca right there m thank you for being my greatest inspiration watching you grow now he has grown taller than me watching you grow learn and face each new challenge motivates me to do and be better every day I'm beyond proud to be your mom you have a beautiful heart and I'm grateful for the joy and purpose you bring to my life the Luca I want to thank judge Dalia Weise for swearing me in today I met her a few years ago and it has been a joy to be um her friend as a fellow Argentinian she has shown continued support each year as I organize the Hispanic heritage bus tour in Page County gracias hesa I I want to thank my boss Greg Weise he's not here he's died at the BCC but um working for him has not been a job it's been part of fulfilling my purpose in life his guidance has and his leadership has been invaluable to me and he has helped me shape my journey and I'm truly grateful for that opportunity and to all of you who supported me and carried me across the Finish Line I could not have done it without you and as I step into the new role I'm committed to ensuring that all students have the tools support and opportunities they need to succeed I will work to increase parental engagement Implement initiatives that prepare students for life beyond graduation and ensure a focus on school safety and Mental Health Access together we will create positive change and continue to improve the quality of education for every student you know I have always said it takes a village to accomplish great things and I feel so blessed to have you all in my Village and to be part of yours I am so honored to be part of two Incredibles team PVC Palm Beach County government and now the school district I'm looking forward to working with another set of talented passionate individuals and professionals all United in serving our community thank you to my assistant Tina senior Mrs Sinclair Mrs Bernard Mr Burke and his entire team for their warm welcome the easiest part is behind us now comes the hard work by your continuous support we can improve we can create and we can move forward together I'm here to listen to learn and to be part of the change we want to see in our schools in our community and our future I'm looking forward to getting to know all my schools in district 2 and I wish Mrs aala all the best as she embarks on a new chapter in her life finally I invite Pastor Josh Dugan from Life Church West b beach in District 2 to come up and give and offer a blessing for me for this board and everyone who wants to receive it thank you gracias Mercy to Raba [Applause] maybe thank you for allowing me to share very very very proud of you uh it's a it's an honor to be here today and so today I have a uh a blessing that I would just like to speak over you and everyone here because who doesn't like to have a blessing spoke over them right so I bless you with the wisdom to navigate the unique challenges of this generation blending empathy an Insight in a way that truly inspires trust and growth may your influence extend beyond the students and fostering a community where parents feel truly supported may you find courage and collaboration knowing that strength and asking the right questions and seeking answers is truly the key to wisdom May every decision you make be grounded in both Clarity and genuine curiosity finally may you find joy in the small victories patience in the process and strength in knowing your work plant seeds that will grow for years to come what you build today will Outlast tomorrow leaving a legacy of wisdom care and endless potential go forth boldly and lead with purpose thank you board member saveto that brings us to District Five Miss Gloria Branch thank you superintendent Burke I'm very grateful and thankful for the tremendous amount of support I had during my campaign from both sides of the aisle I want to thank my amazing family I love you and thank you for your unwavering support I feel a great sense of Pride to have been elected to the same Schoolboard seat as my dad Dr Art Johnson he held many years ago and I feel honored to be uh sworn in by honorable chief judge ofad who also sworn in my dad thank you my dad is the greatest educator I have ever known and to my beautiful mom who is behind the scenes making sure everything is running right and getting done which she's always done remember she kept my dad straight for 40 years for those of you that know that that's a lot uh and my daughter who is my biggest cheerleader and was a great C campaign her and making sure everyone was out voting for me she even got all her friends involved I love you sweetheart I've been in bokeh since 1983 attending bokah high and graduating with a degree in finance from FAU I had a great career in banking for 30 years and for the last two years I have been substitute teaching for Palm Beach County School District teaching almost every day K through 12 in any subject and I loved it I actually substituted today my last day they weren't happy that I was not there anymore being in the classroom with the students and talking to all the teachers and administrators I really learned a lot it's interesting how my campaign was actually a Civic lesson for the students the students would come into class and say I saw a sign with your name on it or we got a mail with uh your name and picture on it or my mom got a text is that you and I said it is me so we talked about Civics and learning and voting Etc and they would tell me when they went to vote with their parents that they saw my name on the ballot so after the general election they would come into the class and say to my say my parents voted for you and then ask me did you win and yes when when I told them yes they were so excited it was great to watch them learn about voting and how important it is no matter who you vote for I learned a lot about being a substitute teacher we have a lot of great students and I can attest to how important the teachers and the administrators are in our students lives I'm looking forward to working together with superintendent Burke the board staff and our schools for the greater good and to make our school district even better than it is now and make Palm Beach County School District the number one Urban School District again I know there were people out there working against me on my campaign including the media but it didn't affect me one second because my goal and platform is to help all our students learn to read write and count and to grow up and become good productive citizens no matter what career path they choose my mission is educating all our students while keeping them safe and being fiscally responsible balancing our budget I have to say superintendent Burke the staff that I have spoken with and met after the election were so welcoming and very professional I also want to add because there seem to be some confusing for some people that I do support superintendent Burke make sure all your media people out there get that um uh anyway I'm truly honored to be elected to palach County School Board honored we go to make our school's word class for all students thank you very [Applause] much thank you board member Branch uh would everyone please join me in a huge round of applause for our newly elected board members [Applause] thank you we will now move to the organizational portion of this meeting I'm sorry I skipped the step there miss Sinclair would you please call the role District One Matthew Lane present District Two Virginia seeto present District three Karen Burl here District Four Erica Whitfield here District Five Gloria Branch pres District Six Mara Andrews District Seven Edwin Ferguson here okay we will now move to the organizational portion of this meeting by calling for nominations for Schoolboard chair and vice chair the floor is now open for nominations for Schoolboard chair please utilize the iPad by pressing the request to speak button to make your nomination I will call on you in the order in which the request to speak was made superintendent Burke my my pad isn't working so but I would like to nominate um or member brw for chair okay yeah we'll get the technology working I'm not sure mine's working either here let's do this the old fashioned way by show of hands I believe Mr Lane you had a nomination I was going to nominate um Karen BR as well okay okay um any other nominations for chair Miss Branch Karen bril got three nominations uh any other nominations for chair okay hearing no okay thank you sir all right as there is only one person nominated in this race instead of doing a roll call vote I will call the question all those in favor of nominee Karen bril as your board chair please show by a sign of I all hi it's unanimous congratulations chair [Applause] bril okay so we'll move on to the role of Vice chair I'm now uh calling for any nominations for vice chair Miss Branch Marsha Andrews Marsha Andrews thank you any additional nominations for vice chair okay I'll nominate uh Miss Whitfield okay we have uh nomination from Miss Whitfield any additional nominations okay so we're going to proceed to a roll call vote each board member will Now cast one vote for their choice of Schoolboard Vice chair the clerk will now conduct the roll call vote and following will tally the votes Miss Sinclair district one Matthew Lane Miss Redfield District Two Virginia saveto Marsh Andrews District three Karen Burl marshia Andrews District Four Erica Whitfield I'll vote for myself thank you District Five Gloria Branch Andre District Six Marsha Andrews Marsha Andrews and District Seven Edwin Ferguson board member Andrews I'm pretty sure got congratulations Mrs Andrews I am very pleased now to announce that again once again that miss Karen br will be our board chair and our board Vice chair will be Marsha Andrews at this time I will return I will turn the remainder of this meeting over to Schoolboard chair bril thank you Mr Burke so that's going to bring us now board members to the choosing of the dates and times for the 2025 regular board meetings I recommend the board approve the proposed list of dates for the 2025 regular board meetings motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Vice chair Andrews any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously it's kind of weird changing having my head go back and forth for this okay um next we're going to be looking at our organizational documents I recommend that the board authorize the board chair and superintendent to complete and execute the documents required by Florida statute 1000 1371 relating to this reorganization meeting including a copy of the unadopted minutes of this meeting and to forward and file them with the Florida Department of Education motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Vice chair Andrews any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously so that's now going to bring us to the committee assignments everybody has a list um the only thing that I would suggest is just make sure that you don't overcommit yourselves because we get very enthusiastic and we do that um and and just also to look at you know the dates and times when they're meeting I will tell you that um I'm guilty because last year we didn't have anybody for the American Association of caregiving Youth and so I stepped up and then found that I couldn't make the meeting and we didn't have an alternate so we need to make sure that we have alternates for all our committees because we don't want did not serve our community so the first um the first committee is the American Association of caregiving youth would anybody like to be our representative I will okay that's great I know the organization and it's down okay so now we do need an alternate um if no one's going to step up I will be the alternate but hopefully um Miss Branch will be able to to attend all the meetings because the Mondays became hard does anybody else want to be the alternate okay seeing none I will be the alternate okay the next one is Children's Services Council I will preface it by saying that I've wanted to be on this for 14 years um so and it meets near where I live so I'll put my name out there is there anybody else that wants to do that okay Mrs Whitfield wants to do it as well so we can decide amongst ourselves one thing that I wanted to to say though is that for any of you if you don't wind up getting the board that you want that doesn't preclude you from going to the meetings you just won't be sitting at the table and participating and we now have a limit of two years for them so we can decide amongst ourselves if you really want it or if you want to go to a vote we can vote now or vote later if you see how many committees you want so it's something that I've really wanted for a very long time I've expressed this at this meeting many many times um I have spoken with Miss Williams um again about this um there was I've been doing a lot of work with the Children's Services Council for years um and this is something that like you have wanted since I've been on the board haven't been able to to Garner the votes to get it yet so I'd love to put myself back out there again um just got a huge Grant for the school district from the Children's Services Council through my work with them um so we'll be getting another $500,000 for um feeding children which you know is one of my passions so that's why i' put myself out there for that and so I just um I'd love it to go a vote okay and so I'll just add that many years ago I was very active with Children's Services Council long before I was on the board in my advocacy role for students with disabilities and also miss aella reached out to me um wanting me to carry on some of the things that she began there so we can either have a motion to do this later or we can vote now I'm fine if you want to vote now um Mrs Whitfield how do you feel about it just to make it go slowly so we can do a roll call vote and the person that gets the majority um would be you know it's kind of uncomfortable having to vote on a committee but you know this is there's not much that I can do with my work also and the fact that they also live they also meet in Boon Beach you know is a big plus for me so do I call the rooll then or did the clerk yes the clerk okay the clerk can call up the Roll Call district one Matthew Lane Aaron BR District Two Virginia saveto Karen bril District three Karen br me District Four Erica Whitfield pH me District Five Gloria Branch Karen BR District Six Mara Andrews here in BR District Seven Edwin Ferguson good Phil okay so now that I'm going to be the representative um I will promise Mrs Whitfield that if I can't make a meeting they don't allow alternates that you're going to be the alternate they don't allow altern oh they don't I'm sorry okay that will now bring us to the communities and schools Mrs Andrews has served on that before are you looking to continue I'd love to continue but I do want to give my fellow board members an opportunity if someone wants does anybody else have an interest in that I'm sorry no so um I could be your alternate that works thank you okay and the next one is the Community Alliance they don't allow an alternate um can tell you that you know I've been serving on that we don't get a lot of input I'm happy to continue if nobody wants it if somebody wants it I'm happy to relinquish it and that also meets down in Boon at Children's Services Council so or remotely so seeing nobody else I will continue with that and I think that's pretty much my Tally for me um the Council of great City Schools Mrs Andrews so you are an a officer so you have to serve we we we have to allow any officers who anyone that holds a position on a board so Mrs Andrews we'll keep you there but we do need an alternate I'd like to serve as the alternate is everybody okay with Mr okay Mr Ferguson okay so we have Mr Ferguson as the alternate the Criminal Justice Commission I would like to do that I know it's been many years since I've done it but I don't know if Miss Andrews wants to continue but that's something I've interested in as well I am an officer I sit in the treasurer's position and I've been recommended to continue in that in that role for the Criminal Justice Commission so as an officer you would continue Mrs Whitfield will you um be the alternate you can attend the meetings yeah so you know and that's the thing that I want to impress upon everybody we haven't done it in the past but if you want to be at a meeting we can still go to the meetings so I you know hope that you would transition that way um that brings us now to the cultural Council board of directors it was Mrs mcquinn who would like I would like to step in for that role okay so miss saveto and it doesn't say here that they don't allow an alternate correct so I think we could have one if we would someone like to be the alternate on the cultural Council okay they meet um when do they meetday um January it's a Thursday January 26th okay in Lake Worth mrsf if you want me to be alternate I'm happy to I can okay so Mrs Whitfield will be the alternate for that committee Early Learning Coalition Mr Ferguson you have been the representative are you interested in continuing I am and anybody else would like to I very much enjoy this one as well I can stay on as alternate okay so it's going to be Mr Ferguson and Mrs Whitfield as the alternate the Education Foundation I know Mrs M yes I'm sorry I I'd like to address board member Whitfield sure I I supported you taking on CSC um so I feel that I seem to recall that you all afforded me the opportunity to be on ELC so would you like to be the primary and I'll be the alterate for ELC or would you like that's very sweet that's up to you if you want I'm thank you I I'm giving you the option so you you call it um yeah I would love to that would be so Madam chair I'll serve as the altinate this year and okay well thank you Mr Fergus Mr Ferguson okay the Education Foundation Mrs Woodfield I'm sure you would like desperately would like to keep it it's uh yeah this is be my second year Ser as I would like to serve as the alternate okay so Mr Ferguson you were the alternate are you okay with Mr Lane stepping in as the alternate Mr Ferguson wants to keep it that's fine too do you want it Mr Ferguson how do you feel I like to keep it but the thing is board member whf goes to all the meetings so alternate is really so by all means Mr Lane you be the alternate TR to skip one if you want okay so now we hopefully some of our newer board members can step up to some of these committees Families First of Palm Beach County was Mrs mcquinn does anybody have I can do that because it's in my district right around the corner from here okay so so miss savay would like to do that it doesn't say here that we can't have an alternate does somebody want to be Mrs Andrews would like to be the alternate it's a good one okay the federal relations Network okay like to continue serving in that capacity okay and is everybody all right with that okay Mrs Andrews do you want to continue as the alternate I'd like to give that up to us a new member I'm sorry I'd like to let a new member get an opportunity would someone and one of our new board members like to serve as the alternate I'll be the alternate okay so Mr Lane thank you for stepping up okay The Glades career Readiness Round Table well we know that Mrs Andrews I'm sorry FBA FSB oh you know what it's not on my sheet I'm in the wrong sheet sorry I forgot that you updated it so now we have fsba I'd like to serve on that board Madam chair if no one else so let me see where we are so we need you you want to be the director for that so you would be at the board meetings and you'll vote on behalf of the board so that's going to be Mr Ferguson and everybody's always invited to the meetings does anybody would like to serve as the alternate that's normally there okay so m m Miss Branch will be the alternate and now I'm going to have to make sure I don't miss anybody else so now we have the greater Florida Consortium uh glaze career Readiness Roundtable Madam Sher I'm sorry I couldn't hear you blader blades career Readiness Roundtable is the next one on my list thank you so that was served by Mrs Andrews and Mrs mcquinn was your alternate it do you want you want to stay there obviously absolutely and I do encourage um any of you to uh to attend the meetings they're virtual as well as in person but we do need an alternate I'd like to serve as the alternate okay and if you could just ask them to invite you know when when they're are virtual if we can attend I think any of those virtual meetings it would be nice if board members got in got invitations through their email because I know I've never seen an invitation for that so you know for those where we can attend I think it would be really nice absolutely we're having uh our December meeting and I see my executive uh Miss Santa Cruz is there she'll make sure that you all get the link if you're able to come at any time and that would be that would be great because now we can be more more public facing all around so now we're at the greater Florida Consortium of school boards Mr Ferguson would you like to continue with that Madam chair I would okay and Mrs Andrews you've been the alternate for that would you like to continue I'm willing to let a new member get an opportunity okay does somebody here want to be in um the alternate okay so Miss Branch will be the alternate for that and they often you know well they send us all the invitations so everybody's also for that welcome to join them for the meetings that brings us to the Hispanic education Coalition who would like to serve on that this is Andrews I'm interested too if if I I serve I would love to serve as an alternate this is usually the position for the um the school board member so I just want to make sure that uh Miss saetti I don't want to be stepping over you no sure you can volunteer to do that oh yeah okay so Mrs Whitfield wanted to do a also fine if missio is going to do it that's fine no she said she's not going to you want going to do oh no Miss Mara wants to do it I would love to do it and maybe you can be the alternate Mrs wh sure okay so board clerk you have that right okay the Historical Society of Palm Beach County that was Miss aella and Miss Whitfield was the alternate um who is interested in that they meet the last Wednesday of the month in West Palm Beach so any of you West Palm Beach area residents is there somebody that's interested doesn't this one um it's very difficult with our meeting sometimes or does it um it doesn't it says it's well it could be I mean you know if one can't make it the others can't make it so sure but we do need somebody to represent us but it is a good one I've been on it before if anybody wants it so we do need a representative Mr Lane doesn't have enough committees I don't think thanks thanks Miss wh they meet at a [Laughter] restaurant okay so do you are you willing to do it apparently I am okay well we we do need an alternate well I will stay as alternate if you want it's fine okay thank you this is Whitfield a good okay um hopefully we don't have any others that were added to this I'll go by my original list the homeless Advisory Board Miss Whitfield you're on their board right I honestly I can't give it up I'm in the middle of a huge project with them and and you're actually I believe a aren't you a board person for them too no they don't have um leadership but I am doing a a big dashboard that we've been working on so please don't take me off okay so no well you know I had wanted that for years and I will not take that from you so don't worry because you do an awesome job with that committee so who would like to be an alternate for that anybody well knowing that you never miss a meeting for that I will be alternate okay thank you how about that okay the next one after that is intergovernmental coordinating program so just so you know I serve now as the vice chair so I'm going to be continuing with that it used to never meet but we're right now working on a project so um we are meeting basically monthly um might become more than monthly and so um whoever is going to be the alternate needs to be flexible because the time varies it usually winds up in the afternoon in Palm Springs but you're going to have to be someone that can meet at 2 3:00 in the afternoon um and run late so who would like to be my alternate I haven't missed a meeting so it's not a bad thing to do I I think you can only be the issues for him is that's the issues Forum right okay I'll be your alternate okay so and you'll be okay for a like late afternoon I mean we will find someone to watch and I'm and I'm actually pretty dedicated to being there I haven't missed one yet Pine Jog board of directors Mrs Whitfield is that something so I'm doing another large project with them right now that's been um something that we've been working on so I'd really like to stay on that one okay anybody else want to do that okay the um alternate was mizala um when do they meet that Pine do environmental has to be determined do you know when they meet normally it's super inconsistent it's as you know catches catch can kind of um so we uh we actually don't I don't even know when our next meeting is but it's usually more morning are you usually there so that so she's usually there so it won't be much of a commitment no I can do inconsistencies okay so when is it's usually in the morning and it's it's really not consistent it's yeah there was like a whole year didn't happen Okay thank you Miss Branch we are working hard right now it's good okay Shaq that's the school health advisory Council so I was appointed last year I've served in the past they met once and they canceled all their other meetings um I happen to like them but I would be more than happy to share this and and give it to some one of our newer board members if someone would like to be on the school health advisory you win Ken okay well most likely they're going to set up the meetings and not meet anyway so I will be happy to continue Mrs Whitfield would you like to continue as my alternate of course yeah okay Tak stock and children Mrs Andrews yeah I would like to keep that we do a lot of work with the glaze I am a mentor was mentor of the Year this year and they've asked me never to go away but I would like to stay for at least another year that's a very rewarding committee given that they give scholarships to the students so I'm hoping that we do have an alternate to step up do we have an alternate Miss aella did it in the past um they meet it looks like 8 to 10 o'clock Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard any of our North County people I can be your alternate um Miss and okay so miss savay also um going through the mentorship right now to become a mentor with them oh great terrific okay the Treasure Coast Regional planning council is a gubernatorial appointee I think um just so I can throw this in here I would love to see somebody on this um I don't think it can be me um it should be somebody with of the same persuasion as the governor um to get appointed U but I think um it's very valuable and also it's very far north Mr Lane if you want to do that one um or if any anybody's really interested in it but I think it would be really nice to have a Schoolboard person on it well I think we should have a Schoolboard person but I don't think that anybody's political affiliation should be a driving force in their application being that I was appointed by a former governor in the past who was different I was appointed and they took me off because of that so well you know I would still encourage someone if anybody would like to apply um they meet let's see when do they meet um it's out of County um at this point it doesn't look like anybody's interested so it looks like we'll if no one's interested I'll try again um I really like it I think it's really important you think that you're going to be able to commit with your other boards that you're if you do get appointed it's out of County travel yeah because just don't don't go for something that you can't make no I if nobody else is going to try I'll try but we it we can't decide here anyway it's just about putting the application in but if if somebody else wants to please please do it I just think we should apply somebody to it okay so Mrs Whitfield is going to apply I'll try okay and the value adjustment board so this one is really super super important and we did have a hiccup last year so Mr Ferguson would you like to continue on that board I'd like to continue unless Mr Lane would like to no you can have it Mr Ferguson you can have it would you like to be the first alternate not really no no okay so we have Mr Ferguson we need to have a couple of alter it's Mrs Whitfield you were the first alternate in the past yeah I'm totally fine it's not hard to get to or you can be the first alternate I'll be the second I have a lot on my list so who's gonna Who's on First and what's on second I missed that first okay okay and that will leave us with the wellness promotion task force Mrs Whitfield that's always been your baby would you like to continue with that happy to give it to anybody else I did this for a long time Mr Ferguson did it for a little bit I know you did it for a while hey they meet up here um if anybody's interested it's fun how often do they meet it's like quarterly so we need to have somebody on there I'll do it if she doesn't want to do it yes okay Miss Branch will do it and I'm happy to be your alternate okay on occasion I've been known to to attend so so we'll do that so now that's going to bring us Madam chair even though Dr sh uh uh well Dr Chef was on this one okay I I'd like to serve on on the academic advisory committee since this was formerly uh one that was served by board member mccoin I'd like to be the alternate there I think you guys can probably do I guess we'll take a motion to do that so before before we continue with the Committees um since I didn't know I was going to be chair I didn't know we had an agenda item speaker present so we do have an agenda item speaker um general counsel do we need to take a motion to suspend this and to go to the agenda item speaker uh we don't we can we haven't voted on the final list yet so we can take the the agenda item speaker so then I am happy to call up Gordon loffer president of the classroom Teachers Association thank you very much Miss Brill uh again chair bril um and if I remember right I should been paying a better attention Vice chair andw Andrews yes um my longtime friend from years ago 1988 when my wife and I came here um I I really just wanted to be here tonight um with a conflict for the later meeting with uh the union meeting later tonight um I just wanted to be here to essentially uh welcome each and every one of you again also uh superintendent Burke it's good to be here again this evening uh to welcome you new board members and to uh give greetings to all of the returning board members um it's a tough job and I praise each and every one of you for always stepping up to do this particular job I congratulate each one of you on your election victories however they were achieved because it still requires the commitment to plan and prepare and go out and do that work and I welcome you um to this palach County school board on behalf of the classroom Teachers Association I do look forward to continuing to work with each and every one of of you on those things that matter most to us um our students need the highest quality education they can possibly have one that allows them to be successful adults in life um indigenous to that uh need for our students is highly effective teachers and so the legislative platform that's already been discussed and of course we'll be before some of you all down the road uh speaks to those priorities that we have for uh focusing on students and focusing on recruiting and retaining teachers with appropriate funds and so I look forward to sh sharing uh that mission with you in the days to come and uh with uh with really nothing else to say again congratulations on your victories to the three new congratulations to all for the next two years that you will be serving together I um I wish you the best and I bid each one of you welcome to uh palmach County School Board uh for the time that we will serve together going forward on behalf of teachers and students have a good evening thank you thank you Mr L long haer and apologies again for not knowing that you wanted to speak so that's going to bring us to the board committee assignments and most of these committees um well there's several of them do meet virtually and so board members can all always attend but we do have our Representatives the academic advisory committee Mrs mcquinn um was our representative it meets the second Monday at 5:45 here Mr Ferguson expressed an interest in that and I agreed to serve as his alternate okay everybody good with that okay and then we have the audit committee Mr Barbieri was our representative on the audit committee who would like to be our representative I'm happy to nobody else wants to okay so Miss Branch and Miss Whitfield you were the alternate would you like to remain the alternate sure okay yeah literally never been to a meeting though yeah and and actually we are invited to the audit committee you should all be receiving invitations you can attend virtually so you know feel free to attend budget committee meeting Mr Ferguson would you like to continue yes okay and Mrs mcquinn was the alternate I'll serve as his alternate I'm sorry M I'm willing to serve as the alternate Bud Lane will be the [Applause] alternate construction oversight and Review Committee I'd like that one okay Mr Barb Ori was the representative I'd like that one also okay so we have you can she can have it I'll be I'll be the alter isn't that nice that is nice so thank thank you thank you for your collaboration and so it's going to be Miss Branch with Mr Lane will be the alternate the district diversity and Equity committee Mr Ferguson you were the person representing us would you like to continue I would Madam chair okay and then miss aella was our alternate I can do the alternate okay terrific okay the finance committee we had Mrs mcquinn was our representative who would like to do the finance committee Mrs Andrews U Mrs Whitfield did you want to continue as alternate I'm happy to unless one of our new members wants it Miss Branch would you like to do that as an alternate okay so Mrs Whitfield okay the independent ref referendum oversight committee Iraq I've been the um the person I'd like to continue but if someone has a burning passion I'll still attend I I I really have wanted to do this for a long time do you know it's virtual so you can be on it regardless I know I probably won't show up unless somebody tells me though it's your commit so that's where I've I've been the alternate for a long time well you know what I will be happy to give you that I'll serve as your alternate but I'll probably be at all the meetings anyway because I always go to those meetings and then for the iso um do you want to do the same thing we okay so see I can be very collaborative is that one a virtual also yeah it's virtual so you should be able to attend so board members can attend some of these committees they won't have you participate it's very interesting both those committees whatever they present to the committee winds up coming to us at the next board meeting so you're going to hear the same thing again but it is a great committee to participate in and last but certainly not least the technology advisory committee Mrs mcquinn was our representative they meet the first Wednesday quarterly um who would like to do that I'll take it okay so Miss Branch is going to be our representative Mrs Andrews will be our vice chair Andrews will be our alternate so that now brings us to the motion I recommend that the board approve the list of Schoolboard committee assignments for 2025 motion by mrsi I'll second second by Mr Lane any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously and I will just ask Mrs Sinclair at the earliest convenience of the board could you please send out to everybody the new list of committee assignments with everybody's names okay and that brings us now to our last item on this agenda um this is going to be for the value adjustment board I recommend that the board appoint Anella Autumn Williams as the business Community representative to the value adjustment board motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Mr Ferguson any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously I recommend the board of Port Darnell Gardner as the alternate business Community representative to the value adjustment board motion by Mr Ferguson second by Mrs Whitfield any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously I'll now take a motion to adjourn the meeting I make the motion to adjourn sorry Miss uh chair chairwoman BR my pad is not working I just wanted to to just State for the the the various board members that may have an interest in jumping on either on the virtual or what have you just be mindful um because you know don't want you to be caught in participating in those meetings observing and that sort of thing is fine um that happens quite often but two or more board members you just want to be very careful that you're not participating in those committee meetings are you talking about the board that you're not speaking about the ones that we have Representatives because those are all all advertised and all the minutes are taken if those are Sunshine meetings then yes then that can yes but I believe not all of them are but to the extent they're Sun they're properly Sunshine meetings you'll be fine okay so then I would ask our general counsel to please make a note when you send us these when you send us the committee if you would work with Mrs Sinclair and identify which ones are Sunshine because my understanding is that the board committee assignments where like academic advisory audit committee those are sunshin so let's just make sure so that nobody uh attends something inappropriately and says something okay so now that brings us to a motion to adjourn I make the motion to adjourn motion by Mr Lane second by Mrs Whitfield any discussion all in favor all oppose motion carries unanimously now go celebrate with your people and we'll have a break till 5