##VIDEO ID:N9LLJ6m57XE## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen I will now call the regular school board meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Mrs is Sinclair please take all the rooll district one Matthew Lane District Two Virginia saveto district three Karen br District Four Erica Whitfield here District Five Gloria Branch here District Six Marsha Andrews here District Seven Edwin Ferguson also joining us is superintendent Michael Burke general counsel sha Bernard Inspector General Teresa Michael board clerk 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 pamosa School of the Arts brass choir would every everyone please stand for the pledge of Alle Allegiance led by Miss Branch followed by the national anthem alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands nation under God indivisible andice for all oh oh [Music] [Applause] good J so got viewers and listeners can access the meeting today by either watching on Comcast channels 234 and 235 VI verse channel 99 or by using the YouTube link on our web page at pom Beach schools.org in the event that the link is interrupted for technical reasons please switch 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 561 357 5900 or tell free at 1866 93070 one5 the meeting ID is 1561 88124 pound board members we have five sets of minutes to approve I'll take a motion to approve the agenda motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Miss Branch any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries [Music] unanimously I have two items to add for good cause first item is ca4 trip to Poland good cause exist to allow the school district of Palm Beach County to send a representative along with the Jewish foundation for the righteous to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of awit in Poland on January 23rd 2025 and the other item is P2 the Personnel addendum good cause exists for adding this item so that employees can begin in their new positions as soon as possible Mr superintendent do you have any items to withdraw no Madam chair board members we have right now three items pulled we have cw2 p- cw1 and p- cw2 does anybody else have any items to withdraw Cas seeing none I'll take a motion to approve the agenda motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Vice chair Andrews any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously any disclosures and exstension okay seeing none that's going to bring us to superintendent and board member comments Mr superintendent yes thank you on Sunday December 1st our Hispanic education Coalition of Palm Beach County hosted the second annual lafa and I hope I'm pronouncing that right but that's laa Palm Beach and this is a uh a bike ride the Riders could do either 30 mil or 62 miles and it's it's hosted by Dr wi King Garcia high school you can see some pictures of the event we had a good turnout and I opted for the 30 mile Journey which proved to be plenty funny but uh anyway it's money raised for a good cause to support scholarships for our students and also supports Dr Garcia High School there so that was a fun event and then uh last Friday December 13th proved to be a very lucky day for the West bokeron high school football team the home of the Bulls they are our proud state champion state champs for uh sixa football so across the entire State we are now home of the state champs and we're going to invite the team and the coaches and the principal to come join us uh for a future board me to recognize him properly but I just wanted to quickly congratulate principal Capitano coach Dylan pots and his entire coaching staff and of course the amazing scholar student athletes there and you can see some pictures but big win big win for the Bulls and at this point I'd like to invite up our Deputy superintendent chief of schools Mr Ed Tierney and we are going to introduce you to our newest School leader chairwoman Brill Vice chair miss Andrew School Board member superintendent Burke I am very pleased this evening to have the opportunity to introduce Palm Beach County School District District's newest principal the Roosevelt Community Middle School princip Community was looking for a principal who's a Visionary leader who will inspire students staff and the community while maintaining high standards and smooth operations and we believe we found the perfect candidate in Miss atala mcclarence greeting board chair brille Vice chair Andrews school board members superintendent Burke and Deputy superintendent Tierney I am deeply humbled to be be before you tonight like so many students I grew up understanding struggles are a part of everyday life my childhood home was not far from Roosevelt's middle school and despite the challenges I face I am proud to say that I graduated with an international Balor degree from sunos Community High School as a proud product of the Palm Beach County School District I am driven by the hopes of children who dream but lack opport opportunities and by the students who search but have yet to find their path they are among the many reasons why I selected to dedicate my career to education if there has ever been someone ready for this position I believe that I am that person please know that this statement comes not from a place of arrogance but from a deep sense of humility my journey has been long but meaningful I have had the privilege of standing on some shoulders of some incredible leaders their unique leadership styles were positive and excuse me positive and facilitated the impact outcome at this moment I want to thank God my parents my family and friends and all my past principles for their inspirational leadership Dr George lockart Dr Anthony lockart drone Dr Lee Mrs Edwards kowana hoab Mrs Katherine ker thank you so much for believing in me and I'm ready to get to work thank you nice job we look forward to great things at Roosevelt Middle School thank you we'll let you get to work right away all right thank you Mr tne all right uh and also you know I just want to extend a special holiday greeting to all of our students our families our community and uh the members of Team Palm Beach I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to all the wonderful things we're going to accomplish together when we get back in 2025 the uh I'm also proud you know we have our superintendent student advisory committee and uh we met just yesterday and I'd like to welcome up the chair of the committee Miss Delila lenen and she's going to provide a report on the uh super again it's the superintendent student advisory committee Miss Lennon hello everyone thank you so much for having me I'm very proud to be here and representing the student advisory committee once again I'm Delilah Lennon the chair president of the student advisory committee I'm a senior at Santa luus High School where Dr tamaa Robinson is the principal I have been a member of the superintendent student advisory committee for three years and I represent board member Erica Whitfield on October 28th 2024 we had our first meeting in the boardroom the meeting began with Mr Burke expressing gratitude to miss aala who attended our meeting for her continued support and dedication to the district's goals he highlighted two critical issues that have faced our schools and how our committee contributed to decision-making regarding these issues the challenges surrounding metal detectors and vaping emphasizing these ex as examples of pressing safety and health concerns for our students and staff Mr Oswell presented on the understanding the impacts of threats in schools he explained policy 51814 to us the zero tolerance policy which has a purpose of ensuring a safe learning and working environment by protecting students and employees from behavior that threatens school safety he spoke about an incident evolving a student who posted a threat in this case the FBI intervened leading to the student's arrest a stark example of the real life consequences of such actions Mr Burke emphasized that incidents like these demand a proactive approach to address addressing and preventing School violence Mr Oswell presented data on threat incidents and concerning upward Trend in school threat incidents over recent Years miss Simmons presented an activity where we were asked to address this problem for the district despite numerous strategies to educate students on the consequences of making threats including a presentation shown to all students within the first two weeks of the school the school district has observed an in a concerning increase in the number of students making threats although these threats are often unfounded they disrupt the learning environment causing unnecessary fear among staff and students and divert resources away from educational priorities to manage crisis the student making a false or threat a false threat or a threat as a joke faces a lifetime of consequences and can be charged with a third degree felony in the activity we were asked how can the school district of Palm Beach County develop and Implement comprehensive strategies that not only reduce the occurrence of empty threats but also Foster a safe supportive and emotionally healthy school environment for all students these strategies should be preventative responsive and supportive some of the preventative measures that our committee came up with are students teaching other students about the threats and concerning behaviors versus staff they can discuss the consequences of false reporting the use of a case study approach for training based on actual events that occurred in Palm Beach County implementing a district phone jail policy creating Partnerships with off-campus counseling entities continuously stressing the importance of consequences of your digital footprint as early as Elementary School through assemblies student L clubs for informing students of threats and consequences throughout the year and assemblies with more information a few of the responsive measures our Committee created are see something say something report any threats immediately informing students on how to use apps such such as fortify FL increased visibility of zero tolerance policies to ensure students understand the consequences of threats enforce consequences for making threats whether perceived as false or real involve parents and Guardians in the conversation encouraging a collaborative approach to student safety examples of supportive measures we recommend are host parent meetings where real issues SL scenarios are played out and discussed so they understand the seriousness of threats counselors helping students with mental health and support countywide program for helping students in financial need to afford off-campus counseling the meeting was adjourned and we were encouraged to collaborate with our peers about this issue as we work together to address these challenges thank you and soon you will be meeting my friend Francisco at the next board meeting thank you Miss L thank you Miss lenon and uh I do just want to quickly recognize uh Mr Francisco sanal rero the vice chair would you please just and give us a wave and we look forward to hearing he's going to cover the reporting duties next month but they're a great team and I couldn't be prouder of that committee uh we bring to them serious issues as you heard and we get back very thoughtful articulate eloquent uh commentary and uh they engage in robust discussion and it's really helping guide our district so we're excited about we're extending not just you know I have my committee but now each School across the district is creating their own student voice committee so uh that's exciting uh later today we're going to recognize the winners of the annual holiday greeting card contest uh I think the picture may have flashed up there momentarily when I was speaking earlier but uh we'll recognize those winners later later when we get the presentations and Madam chair that concludes my comments thank you thank you Mr Lane sure it was a busy month um we all attended the Florida School Board Association meeting in Tampa it was a good chance to learn and to exchange ideas with other school board members from across the state um additionally I attended the north county neighborhood coalition where we discussed hurricane preparation strategies there was a breakfast for all of the principles in the North Region I attended an economic Council event the PJ quarter Association also had an event and this morning we dedicated the Dr Ben Carson reading room at the timber Trace Elementary School and this reading room is a gift from the Balon Isles charitable foundation and of course improving literacy is so important to all of us and these reading rooms allow our students to reach their full potential I also visited Marsh Point Elementary School and you should know that US News and World Report ranked them in the top 1% of elementary schools in the nation they're an IR super stretched School 59% of their students met their super stretch goals in math and 58% reached their super stretch goals in English um finally Marsh points looking to fill a prek ESC position if anybody's uh knows any friends for interested there's a position there it's a great school um our school board retreat was very very well done in superintendent Burke Tony Sinclair and Shan Bernard did an excellent job putting it together and thank you so much I'll end by wishing everybody a happy healthy and safe holiday season being that I'm a past president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving don't drink and drive it's a very very dangerous thing I've met many uh parents who've lost children husbands and wives who've lost their spouses and people who've lost their friends and immediate family members don't do it it's dangerous thank you thank you Miss saero I want to express my gratitude to uh for the lifechanging trip to Israel made possible by the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Center to combat anti-Semitism and hatred this trip provided an an upclose understanding of the Region's history and challenges inspired by this experience I organized a round table discussion at FAU um on the Israel Arab conflict which examined the conflict's roots personal stories and the aftermath of October 7 attacks this initiative would not have been possible without the support of Mary S Gonzalez and juli Mar Trumbo from the Hispanic entrepreneur initiative Dr Robert Lloyd from Palm Beach Atlantic University who dedicated countless hours helping me understand thousands of years of History Dr Robert Watson from Lyn University Dr Robert Rael from FAU and the team from fa including Camila melch Beth Alex and Brian Brittain I also want to thank Brian Seymour our moderator and Joseph in gan from their for their guidance I look forward to continue my efforts that Foster understanding and collaboration to that Roba I'm you know I'm proud to serve on the board of Latin quarter West pal Beach recently we launched the above and beyond Excellency award to honor exceptional teachers in November we visited five schools in the 33405 area to um to present the awards to 10 outstanding teachers each receiving an iPad and a tray of cookies to celebrate with their students beler Elementary School Mrs Volo and Mrs kegy coniston Middle School Mrs Martinez and Mrs Mahaba Palmetto Elementary School Mrs espacito and Mrs Anderson Forest High School Mrs pile and Mrs Pino and South Olive Elementary School Mrs Bell and Mrs himber it was great opportunity to honor these teachers meet their students and connect with principales and staffs in District 2 I attended the Florida School Board Association training for the new board members where I gained invaluable insights and connected with colleagues from across the state I had fun participating in the ugly sweater contest and sports day I had um hard to miss me in my soccer gear there a special thank you to my mentor Oola School Board member Terry Castillo and everyone who was welcoming and helpful I look forward to more trainings and working together I attended the annual adult um in Community Education luncheon where we honor the Educators and leaders that make a lasting impact on our community congratulations to The District Two honores Teacher of the Year Mr um goling from John I Learner in high school and Mrs pmmc from horale high school and the Allen Rice Robert Smith award for excellence Mrs Silverman from John I leer High School adult education is very close to my heart my parents been benefited from these classes when we uh first arrived and I had the chance to teach ESO for three years programs like this continue to empower our community and change lives a big thank you to Mr bch and his team for their dedication last week I attended two wonderful toy drives one hosted by the league of cities in bahok where palm Tron collected toys for local children and another organized by the flci team both events showed the power of community and generosity really thank you to everyone who contributed and lastly I want to wish everyone a Happy joyful and safe holiday season merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy New Year thank you Miss Whitfield thank you thank you very much um I wanted to talk uh briefly about um well first of all I want to talk about South intensive uh new name that's on our agenda today um this is something that has been a very long time in coming I'm extremely excited South intensive is one of our alternative schools uh it happens to be located in my district but it is um you know everyone's School in this County really um children from all over the county attend there um the name has always been something that's kind of rubbed a bunch of people the wrong way and so um on our agenda today is an opportunity to rename it in a much more positive manner so I wanted to just bring that up and say how much I appreciate the sack committee coming up with such a great name they are going to be calling it The Rise Academy pending board approval which stands for respect Integrity safety and excellence and so I think this is a much better spin on alternative education and I am thrilled about it so thank you to Mr Jetty for bringing this forward um secondly I wanted to bring forward to everyone on this board um and just make aware to the community um what's been going on at JFK um Hospital on the North End we work with them to provide our um service to collaborate with them they provide services to the students who been Baker acted in Palm Beach County so these are children who are um at risk of um harming themselves or others so it is a very intensive uh treatment that was not something that anybody wants to go through but it's only when we really really need these Services unfortunately the um HCA medical um group has decided no longer to provide services to Children 11 years old and younger and um this is something I've been very involved with um since this announcement came out they are not providing those Services as of um the end of November however um there is some good news on this front and I just wanted to thank our partners and our community about this um so the Department of Health Southeast Behavioral Health Network PBSO Children's Services Council the youth services department our County Palm Beach County the healthc care District um and even our CJC with representative Marsh Andrews participating um have gotten together to really talk about how we best can still service these kids to make sure they're getting the support that they need and I just wanted from the dis here to let everybody know about this change that's gone on in the community and um to thank superintendent Burke who s a letter from this school district um on behalf of supporting this program continuing going forward also the county sent a letter which was very very helpful so I think all of these organizations working together we can make sure that these children are continuing to be cared for there are highest need students within the school district they have um very intensive needs that must be taken care of and this is not something that we can lose here in Palm Beach County without feeling the impacts especially with our concerns with Safety and Security going forward and mental health issues um continuing to be prevalent so I just want to thank all those organizations that I mentioned and our own Keith oswal for coordinating it um here at the district he's done an incredible job of of staying on top of these changes of circumstance in the community and making sure that our children are well taken care of which is um all we can ever ask for um and really I thank you so much Mr Oswalt um to everyone out there I want to say have an amazing merry Christmas happy Hanukkah um happy K Quanza happy New Year this is um a special time of year to be with your families I want to thank everyone in the school system um who has contributed to making this just an incredible Year all of the staff the teachers the bus drivers the school Food Service workers every single person that works to contribute to this system I'm grateful for all of you I will be thinking about you during your time off please be safe please enjoy and we will see you in 2025 thank you thank you Miss Branch thank you chair brel uh I also enjoyed attending the Florida Schoolboard Association it was interesting to learn about what the other school districts are doing around the state um and of course the adult education lunchroom was absolutely fantastic Fred bch is amazing I've been visiting the schools which is wonderful to see all the students that I used to substitute teach for and they keep asking me when I'm coming back and I'm like I'm coming back to visit make sure you guys are learning um I went to the West bokah High football game where they won to go on to win the state championship which was absolutely amazing congratulations to those guys and the team and the school and principal katano just absolutely fantastic um I also went to the bokeh chamber holiday breakfast and the West bokeh choir was singing they were absolutely amazing I mean can't say enough about them they were absolutely amazing and uh you know I'm always short and sweet I want to wish every everyone wonderful holiday and a happy and healthy New Year thank you Mr Ferguson happy holidays everyone uh I Echo board member branches cinamon and and the other board members as well we hope that you all are safe um and spend time with your loved ones uh nothing is more important I want to give a a quick recap of what I've done since our last school board meeting I think we may have some photos for the audience to view um but in any event as always uh Omega sire Fraternity Incorporated um does a project a community cleanup that is known as project uplift and we normally do it in collaboration with the city of West Palm Beach at this month's event superintendent Burke actually was actually was in attendance we had somewhere around 55 volunteers we removed just under a ton and a half I want to repeat that just under a ton and a half of garbage from the city of West Palm Beach uh by my Tally in the last 14 months we've removed roughly six tons uh from the city of West Palm Beach so I don't think the city has a better partner than uh the good Brothers of Omega scii Fraternity Incorporated as well as all the parents and students who come out month after month to give up their time so I want to say thank you to all of you who come out without you this this project would not be as great a success as it is additionally I had a chance to go to the school police lunch in last week that was a lot of fun uh Chief Mooney won the limbo contest well not really but we did have a lot of good fun a lot of uh good food was had had there um and I think all of of our our student resource officers for what they do to help keep our schools safe and also all the other uh District properties throughout Palm Beach County you all do an amazing job so continue being great I will be remiss to uh not recognize Dr Glenda Sheffield some of you may know and if you don't know you'll know now she was recently appointed as superintendent in Hampton County in South Carolina I don't see her see her here today and I didn't see her on the agenda uh to be recognized but as I recall she Faithfully served and and H served this district for roughly 25 to 30 years and so again I think it would be remiss of me someone who was a student um and then a young a young teacher at Palm Beach Lakes just being able to observe her greatness all these years as an amazing educator and she was for those of you who don't know she's still currently our chief academic officer but like I said she's moving on to to different things I won't say bigger and better things but different things and I'm confident that she's going to help transform Hampton County into what uh Palm Beach County School district is which is a top rated School District in the State of Florida so again Dr Sheffield you're not here but understand that I'm always thinking about you I'm confident that we all are thinking about you want to say great job and we want nothing but the best for you and your family and those students and employees in Hampton County um there were some other things that I've done um some of the other board members have mentioned that as well as far as fsba um I was recently appointed as Secretary of Council of great City schools hoay for me uh that's that's that should be a lot of fun um but uh yeah the main thing is now hey we're we're we're rounding the corner testing his next semester let's re-energize students let's recharge let's kick a little butt uh we are the best your best choice here in Palm Beach County we've been a leader and I'm and actually I'm really focused actually on the end of the meeting because I think the two things that we're going to talk about will help ensure that we remain a leader so with that Madam chair I have nothing else until we get to the later part of the agenda thank you thank you m Vice chair Andrews and thank you and Pla School of the Arts your band Ensemble you're fabulous young people this is what Palm Beach county is all about happy holidays I'd like to share some of the activities just a few of them that's happening around our great School District but first of all I would love for a picture to appear of our wonderful great superintendent superintendent Michael Burke there he is he was recog recognized by Florida Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce as a shining star he is our shining star here with the school district of Palm Beach County but at this annual event he was recognized for those prestigious prestigious things that he does every day within our County and our community that develops our culture and help us to live in a wonderful place I want to congratulate L superintendent Michael Burke it was an honor there were several other distinguished Award winners but for the Florida Hispanic uh American Chamber of Commerce shining star it's a big deal held right there at the Hilton Hotel fine fine fine from the standpoint of knowing that when we have great leaders here in Palm Beach County the Florida Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce seeks them out and honor them congratulations again to Mr Bur let's give him a hand it's a big deal it is a big deal and superintendent Burke I wasn't able to ride that day over at waim Garcia high school but I was out there with my little shorts on and I was a cheerleader for all of the bike riders and I saw you all fly by on the bicycles and I want to thank heck and Dr wae Garcia high school and the community for making it happen for scholarships but I did Miss BR go in the kitchen and I helped to do the hot dogs and help put them in the oven and put all of the cookies and potato chips and sodas together and we welcomed the back Riders back and there was Mr Burke on his bicycle Jamie Wyatt was there and Terny was there looking great riding riding for the children riding for scholarships thank you for everything that you do and just a few few other things I've done uh over the last few days is Wellington blast had a pre Quanza uh tea party it was absolutely fabulous uh blast stands for black student leadership and achievement team and for Quanza which begins on December 26 and runs through January 1st we had tea we had high tea I don't know if you know what high tea means but we had high tea we had great food and the students taught us all about Quanza and what each day means and Wellington you're doing great things for our students the Village of Wellington you are awesome we were over there at your wonderful Ballroom it was packed with parents students and Friends congratulations to those students and I also want to say I saw a lot of you out at the league of cities annual barbecue uh luncheon in pooki and you were sitting right there on Lake oob all of the elected officials from all across Palm Beach County get together and talk about how we can do better for our communities it was fabulous next year we'll be in belglade I invite the school board to come with me I saw you Mrs Whitfield you were there I saw you Virginia you were there we were all there Mr Burke uh the team Jamie working with our community that's what it's all about and I'd like to honor a student who is absolutely fabulous abous her name is Caitlyn pants she has won please let me do a little bit more it has to be done Absolut absolutely it's the holidays this a big deal it's a big deal and I had to represent the superintendant but this is a big deal to represent Caitlyn pants an eighth grade student at Crestwood Middle School she won the Palm Beach County School District art at the capital competition with her art work entitled thy flower thy flower thank you to her teacher at Crestwood and see that beautiful flower that's our Caitlyn we're going to bring her to the school board to actually uh present her and P hokei women of Tomorrow you did it at your luncheon Crestwood HL Johnson we're everywhere our kids are great Palm Beach County it's a wonderful place because we make a difference for our children and our children are number one happy holidays thank you everyone thank you so now you know why I'll probably start our speeches from this end to there because Mrs Andrews is a tough act to follow so my gift to all of you is I'm not going to tell you all the places I went you saw some of the pictures I do want to just bring up one one event that I did attend on December 13th teacher Barry Ash every year he brings in Holocaust Survivors and he has a series of speakers for the students at the school and you heard Miss savedo speak about her trip to Israel you know anti-Semitism is growing we all know about the horrific events of October 7th these opportunities to have survivors we're losing them you know they're much older now to be able to have our students exposed to that I wanted just publicly I didn't tell them I was going to do this but I want to thank Barry Ash for doing this for us every year I know CTA was there we had many of the district administrators Mr Burke was there Mr Tierney was there um Mr Ferguson was there so I just want to say thank you and um and so thank you Mrs Andrews was there um I just want to wish everybody as said before a happy healthy and safe holiday and my other gift to you is to hopefully get you out of here early tonight so with that um on each month we have on a regular school board meeting we do remember our employees who have passed away so tonight we are going to recognize Spencer Bloom Spencer was a teacher of middle gifted math 6 to 8 grade in Omni Middle School he passed away on October 19th 2024 and Marie Kimble who is a teacher secondary English 9th through 12th was a teacher at boa Ron high school she passed away on November 4th 2024 I ask that we all now bow our heads for a moment of silence thank you so that's now going to bring us to our presentations um and um Miss na no nolm from the communications and engagement Department joins us now for the December board recognitions board members you can all go down to the floor please good evening chair Brill Vice chair Andrews board memb superintendent Burke staff and community members and this evening we have two recognitions on the agenda uh we begin with the recognition for the winners of the n9th annual superintendent greeting card contest for this contest District students were asked to create a piece of art depicting their interpretation of the winter season in Florida's unique geography under the guidance and support of their art teachers winners were chosen by our superintendent for their exceptional submissions representing one student each from the elementary middle and high school levels each of these students demonstrated exceptional creativity and we are proud to recognize them this evening for their talent we want to First recognize the elementary school winner from Jerry Thomas Elementary fifth grade student Christina Nasco who designed a lovely greeting card showing a cat and dog under a Christmas tree and we also want to acknowledge her teacher Miss Katherine gibart and Jerry Thomas's principal Miss Kristen King let's give them all around of [Applause] applause for [Applause] than [Applause] next we want to recognize the Middle School winner from Jupiter middle eighth grade student Ashley carbo who designed a greeting card with a pelican wearing a Santa hat congratulations to Ashley her teacher Miss Jennifer vanderwalker and Jupiter Middle's principal Miss Lisa Hasty let's give them all a round of [Applause] applause e and finally we want to recognize the high school winner from Forest Hill Community High 10th grade student Alicia Reyes who designed a greeting card with a Christmas tree and a snowman congratulations to Alicia her teacher Miss Kimberly Perino and Forest Hill principal Mr Michael arenson let's give them all a round of applause is good and lastly this evening we are recognizing seven schools that were named Everglades Champion schools by the Everglades Foundation a nonprofit organization dedicated to Leading efforts to restore and protect the greater Everglades ecosystem an Everglades Champion School encourages teachers to participate in Everglades literacy professional development integrates Everglades literacy into the curriculum promotes Everglades interdisciplinary projects and field experiences as well as Everglades community and culture schools are encouraged to make Everglades conservation a core value of their campus the Everglades Foundation designated seven district schools as Everglades Champion schools in Palm Beach County during the 20123 2024 school year congratulations to the following schools and employees please come forward as I call your name and or School congratulations to Citrus Cove Elementary gold level K through 5 Everglades Champion School Michelle Richards and principal Ivy Shelton HL Johnson Elementary silver level K through five Everglades Champion School Kelsey Keel Kristen war and principal Crystal Amad kucharski let's give them all a round of [Applause] applause e [Applause] and next uh congratulations to Meadow Park Elementary bronze level K through 5 Everglades Champion School Angela Norman Sandra Nos and principal Sabrina Higley and New Horizon's Elementary gold level K through five Everglades Champion School Jennifer Schuler and principal Dana poia let's give them a round of [Applause] applause e [Applause] and our last set of schools congratulations to Pine Jog Elementary silver level K through 5 Everglades Champion School Lori vanis Amy T Trier and principal Terelle Thomas Christa mcll middle middle school 6th through 12th grade Everglades Champion School uh Karen nen and principal Dwight Gren and the conservatory school at North Palm Beach 6th through 12th grade Everglades Champion School shanana Lis and principal Derek Schuman let's give them all a round of applause and we also want to acknowledge from the Everglades Foundation Alicia Torres K through2 Everglades Champion schools program manager Alyssa salad salad daraga Everglades literacy regional coordinator Treasure Coast and Mr Pier Spencer director of development thank you for their support [Applause] board chair bril Vice chair Andrews board members superintendent Burke staff and members of the community this concludes the recognitions for December thank you everyone for your attention this evening okay so that's now going to bring us to our Student Government report Isabella marisola good evening superintendent Burke chairwoman BR Vice chairwoman Andrews members of the board and esteemed members of the public I'm going to provide an update on the Palm Beach hunger initiative we are current we are currently analyzing data from over 13,800 responses regarding student hunger and food insecurity which will inform our next steps this feedback is vital as we address the pressing issue of food insecurity within our schools I'm also pleased to report that our student governments have been incredibly active in spreading holiday cheer and giving back to the community they have organized Spirit weeks winter festivities food drives and also have launched adoptive family events to support families in need during this season their commitment to fostering a sense of community and support is truly commendable we are also still seeking further input to better represent our entire student body and will explore creative ways to encourage more participation in our initiatives your continued support is invaluable as we work towards combating food insecurity and uplift in our community thank you for your attention and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday thank you thank you that's going to bring us now to our committee reports academic advisory committee chair Laura Felman are you here yes you are please come right up good evening hello my name is Laura Felman and I am speaking to you tonight as chair of the academic advisory committee good evening School Board board chair bril school board members superintendent Burke and staff the committee met in December uh which we are very happy to do so this was the first time we met since September because we have had many committee members be absent th at our December meeting we reviewed the attendance requirements and specifically that if a committee member has three unexcused absences then they will no longer be a member of the committee and um so before I was very um great F to the staff who reached out to the committee members to help encourage them to one come to the meeting and two to give um information and let them know that we will be working to fulfill the policy of 1.09 regarding this we did go on to also have a presentation about the results of the First Progress monitoring uh that happened earlier in this semester and and reviewed that there were some questions and follow-up questions in terms of interventions and what work is being done now to help students improve even further and what will be put placed um put in place further come January uh we had a variety of topics focusing on um both on reading and in math and so that outlined some ideas of topics that will'll help have in future meetings and thank you very much thank you okay the audit committee meet uh report is attached as well as the construction oversight review committee meeting report District diversity and Equity meeting committee um shaine postal chair are you here come right up good evening board chair Vice chair board members staff and everyone in your respective places the DDC met on November 18th in the boardroom prior to our regular board meeting the DDC at hoc committee convened Sue Davis killan presented the ad hoc committee's report focusing on solidifying goals related to teacher Equity within the district the regular ddec meeting followed the ad hoc committee meeting session during the meeting staff shared a video from the November 177 Florida Board of Education meeting the video highlighted the severe consequences students can face even for threats or false reports made as a joke data from last year shows an increase in incidents particularly on social media this year alone the district has had 12 incidents related to threats and false reports the committee emphasized the importance of informing parents and students about the serious consequences of sharing such false reports or threats so we ask you all to take it back to your communities and your respective organizations and share the consequences and the um the severity of this the DDC continues to receive updates from each represented committee exceptional student advised exceptional student education advisory committee presentation was presented by Kimberly Sparrow the ESC advisory committee's purpose is to assist the ESC director and superintendent in evaluating the current status of exceptional student education the committee identifies strengths weaknesses and goals recommends priorities and ensure a free and appropriate public education for all students in the ESC program the ESC advisory committee also disseminates information to parents and the public the regular ddec meeting was held on December 18th immediately following the ad hoc committee meeting as well Dr Charlene Beckford gave a presentation on the bright future scholarship program focusing on disparities affecting the black student population um well it was the bright future scholarship program however we identified the disparities in the black student population there was lengthy discussions that took place and a full transcript of the conversation is available on the District website if you go under the district ddec formal meetings and videos you would be able to find the video in the transcript of our meetings there will be no meeting in December meetings will resume in January with the ad hoc and regular ddec meetings on the 3D Thursday closing remarks this concludes the ddec report wishing everyone a happy Hanukkah merry Christmas happy Quanza happy holidays have a great one thank you thank you board members the dependent referendum oversight committee report is attached general counsel do you have a report for us tonight actually I do I know that's rare uh but uh today um board members and um and and guests um you'll notice that there is an ld1 item um and that's related to an insulin multi-district litigation uh typically we like to bring to the board uh these sorts of um um discussions in over the course of of two meetings but my understanding is is that there's a statute of limitations issue and so we would not be able to do that uh in time before uh next year so that is why we're bringing that to you today and I'm going to turn it over to Deputy general counsel Patricia Morales to introduce to you our guest and to give you some important background on ld1 good evening board chair uh bril Vice chair Andrews uh members of the board superintendent Burke it is my pleasure to introduce to you Natalia salace and James Ferraro Jr both of the Ferraro Law Firm they are here to introduce themselves to you and to tell you about a multi-district litigation matter in on insulin pricing that is pending in the state of New Jersey Miss sales has been appointed to the plaintiff's executive committee and will explain why the district because it is self-insured may be a candidate to participate in this action we did not give them much time so I'm going to let them get right to it good evening thank you very much for the introduction my name is Natalia Salis of the Ferrar law firm and I'm joined here by my partner James Ferraro Jr um I am uh honored to have been invited to join uh and I understand that this is a time sensitive matter and an important matter for the district and why is that um this is a district that is is the fifth largest in Florida and the 10th largest in the country this is a district that is self-funded and what that means is that this District provides health insurance to its employees spouses and families this is a case about corporate greed about Pharmacy benefit managers working together with manufacturers of insulin and other products including generics and its analoges such as o PC to increase the price of insulin by as much as a th% for no reason other than to line their own pockets that's what's alleged in this litigation I am privileged to serve on the planus executive committee for this litigation I'm going to give you a brief introduction a little bit more about our firm um what we do our practice is in uh in Mass torts uh we have firm that has been around since 1985 we specialize and in representing government entities in matters such as these and we do so on a contingent fee agreement what that means is that we take on all of the risk and all the cost so there is a large upside which I will I will discuss at the end of this presentation uh dollars potentially in uh and no upfront cost we have a 25% contingency model in our retainer agreement we front all of the costs for this litigation which are significant including expert fees including deposition transcripts all of all of the work uh we front um and we are happy to report that this is the last of what has seemed much like your bike ride it has been a road show across Florida to uh to sign up um several other government entities in Florida um including two cities that are within this District uh boa Ron and delr Beach including Two school boards uh Lee County and Highlands County which uh their boards uh voted last week to retain our Law Firm to represent them um and so we are deep into the weeds of this litigation and we are certainly uh honored to be the ones to represent Palm County um I do want to give uh a bit more introduction as far as the case itself um because I know that this is a brand new matter uh before the board so I do want to jump right to that I I will highlight uh the number of employees here uh as far as as far as the last data shows it's close to 23,000 um and that's really important because our damage model is tied to how many people are uh under the plan which could be as many as twice this number considering you know family members are covered um and just as we have seen within our national statistics about 10% of all individuals uh we're going to assume uh maybe diabetic um and take these types of insulin products we have already done the leg work ahead of time uh working with your general council's office to pull the data so we know that there is definitely a potential claim here because the district does contract with one of the pharmacy benefit managers at issue in this case which is opum uh RX through United um and we do know that the the potential recovery could be quite uh significant um and I know that the district is well versed in this because it you have done very well on other contingent matters um I I know we have a lot of the same lawyers uh in this case are involv were involved in the op opioid litigation um and which are firm uh represented Palm Beach uh you know I have I this is definitely one of those types of cases that will be significant and is important also uh from a public health standpoint um and so as I mentioned before I think this this slide really speaks to the case uh and what we have seen right so this is a drug that has been around for a 100 years this is a drug that was intended to be affordable uh this is a drug that should be affordable because there is a market right now where individuals are having to drive to other countries to afford uh these life saing saving products and individuals don't have a choice but to take this drug uh in order to survive so we have seen is not an inflationary tail instead it is a a tale of um these manufacturers rebate aggregators and and Pharmacy benefit managers working together to increase their own profits at the expense of both the consumers and the self-funded payers such as the district um and to tell you more about the case itself and what what it is and where we are it's called a multi-district litigation because these are cases that are filed all over the country um when you have a multi-district litigation often times um they are Consolidated and sent in transferred to one court because there are common issues of fact and law and so it's more expedient to to handle it that way but I do want to highlight that this is not a class action so what that means is that there's actually a much more uh there's a greater upside and potential for recovery than in some of the other cases that are class actions this is a a case that's handled on a case-by casee basis Bell weathers are chosen um this is the same process that was done recently in the pasas or a a f litigation involving water contamination which our firm um including Mr Ferraro is on U the plaintiff's executive committee of that litigation so it's a process that involves these Bell weather cases that are chosen it's pending currently in the district of New Jersey um the case is moving forward now through Discovery um and while we are going to to fight against the idea that there is a statute of limitations um there is a potential risk of not filing uh very quickly and by the end of of January of next year of this coming January because there was a senate finance committee report that was published in January of 2021 that could potentially uh raise the issue of whether or not self-funded payers may have had knowledge of what was going on at the time and some of the claims do have four and fiveyear statutes limitations um so that is kind of the risk of not of not retaining Council um on an expedient basis and why we have seen a real rise in the number of cases that are being filed in this multi-district litigation um I I uh I wanted to mention a few others who have uh filed here and um here we go so this is kind of just a general overview of who has filed and some of these may be familiar um to you all but I also want to mention that there are 50 states that have filed AGS across the country we have over a hundred cases filed in this mdl um but I do think it's important uh that you know that there are a lot of cases out there that have not yet been filed so I can't mention them publicly now um but we estimate approximately 15 in Florida have done so so far and we we have uh school boards in other parts of of the country that have filed um and most recently Lee County and and Highlands County we do represent the first city that filed in the mdl which is the city of Cleveland Ohio um and uh and yeah okay so uh with that I'm just going to wrap up by just letting you know that there is as far as the potential recovery here uh our damage model basically estim is very conservative and estimates about $5,000 uh between the price that should have been paid and the price that was actually paid per user per year um and when we run the numbers for a district of this size that could mean uh $20 million in Damages in just one year and this is a case that's dating back to 2001 and does have the opportunity to have treble damages uh and punitive damages awarded so we certainly um hope to recover that in this case for the district um we're privileged to to work for you if you vote to retain us um and I want to personally wish everyone here a happy holiday and say that I do recognize and appreciate all of your hard work as a mother of two in the uh public school system thank you so much thank you so I'm going to lead off the questions um to general counsel so I understand that there is no cost if we participate we can only see we can only recoup but is there any staff times any staff time in the legal department that will need to be committed to this lawsuit absolutely so the would be you know uh Deputy general counsel uh Patricia Morales would be the liaison so she'd be working alongside uh this law firm and we've H we have other examples as the board knows with the jeel litigation and the social media litigation uh where we do just that and we work with the superintendent and his teams um in making sure that whatever documents that they would need we would help and assist in gathering that up for them and so the answer to your question is yes it would be some staff time in gathering doc documents thank you and just as a followup to the superintendent then um I would imagine that our people that are in our in the health in risk management and the people that handle our Claims can pull that data easily for them uh yes Miss n yes Miss Nancy Bolton is here in the audience tonight but she would be a partner in this and uh she she's able she has access to all that information that be needed thank you Mrs Woodfield thank you very much and thank you for bringing this to our this opportunity to the school board um I just have a question probably through the general counsel um since this is something that has cost our employees money as well as us would any of the funds recovered go back to employees or would it stay within the health system so I'm going to defer that over to outside Council to explain how that would work can you hear me yes um so there two there tracks in this mdl so there's there's three different tracks so we represent the self-funded payers which is the district there's a what we call a consumer track so what the cons the the employees would be considered the consumers and they would be able to file cases in that tract and that is a class action so they're separate because the consumers paid for their drugs directly and then uh we paid the the difference directly so they're two different tracks would you be able to give us information that we share with our employees on that track on whoever the law firm is that's following that is there information that we can share sure yes it's it's all publicly available and the the leads for that particular track we can definitely share thank you they would have to join the the class yes but are they under the same times and straints of January no oh okay that's good okay thank you thank you Mrs Andrews thank you we were so pleased with the jewel sett met so I just need to hear from you are there any down sizes of this anything that could really go wrong where the district will be held accountable for anything any can you help me with that so there really is very little to no risk in this case unlike in other litigations um we take on that risk for the district um I think the the benefit it's definitely outweigh the risk here there's absolutely going to be some level of time and resources that have to be devoted in pulling the data and particularly if uh the district wants to be a bell weather in this case that's when the time really increases um the only other risk that we have uh thought of or tried to manage is a potential under one of the particular claims for uh having to pay back attorney fees there's a what we call Fee shifting insurance that we have looked into uh and we have determined that it's really not something that we would recommend particularly at this stage um that would be the only just as out of full disclosure risk that I would that I would bring uh to the district's attention but otherwise I think uh especially as as we look at the numbers on the other side I think the the potential upside is definitely out weighing any risk here and when would we know if there would be that little risk that you're talking about right now the case is in Discovery so it would not be until Bell weathers for trial uh are selected I think at that point if a if a case is selected as a bell weather for trial um we may advise uh on that but at that point I think uh we would be pass motions to dismiss so I think there would be within the next year or so uh would be a the time frame that I would that I would say that we would know if there was something that we would have to manage but we have done it in the past so we there's insurance that covers that that we would pay for um and this is something that we are familiar with that we have vetted with a Florida bar and we know that if it there is a risk we can manage it okay thank you Mr Ferguson Madam shair question for the superintendent how did how did we get here U with with these two firms um did is this something that normally goes up or is this something that went out for RFP or RFQ uh no sir this is something that where the firms approach to our general council's office okay so and that's fine and I and I I looked at the Ferrar Law Firm they definitely out of Miami they they do these type of large class action shoots and I did a little quick search on y serota as well is that normally how it works a firm would have to come to us and say hey we think you may have an issue that we can be of service uh yes Mr Bernard might be better equipped to answer this question but that's my understanding that the firms bring forward these opportunities similar to uh the BP oil spill settlement years ago our Jewel the jewel vaping lawsuit we've been a part of a few of these but they typically make the case for us to potentially join and Miss Bernard I'd leave it to you if there's anything to add yes that's typically how it has happen in the past we haven't um up till the time that we had I think well the BP oil spill was some many years prior to the juwel case but up till up to the jewel case we have we haven't had any cases like this so I would say from juwel um being the first and then the social media and now this um we have been approached by these firms and for the most part we've used the same firm that we started with in Jewel so we haven't so they've because they have that relationship they have reached out each time so in social media after Jewel they reached out again and said oh is it possible for us to present to your board by way of a workshop as we did on the first Go Round And so that's how it's happened each time they've after they've completed successfully a case or they've built that relationship with us they have brought these these forward Madam chair question for Council so Madame Council so why seroa was was why why seroa the only firm that came to us and said hey we think you may have a potential uh action regarding the the charges the prices for these insulin um insulin um vials I believe so but I I would defer to Patricia Morales but I'm pretty sure because of the past relationship that we've had on these cases that yes that's the email that we would have received actually this came through um fsba which is the association of attorneys for um school boards and so through that Weiss soda um extended the invitation to for me to meet with the Ferrara Law Firm so Madam chair so fsba AA yes so many acronyms around here they said hey we think this this firm or this group of firms might be of assistance to you regarding any they actually were asking who's who is involved in the um insulin litigation and who what school districts are participating so then I inquired a little bit about what it was about and I asked um you know who I would contact if I wanted to you know talk to our bring it up for our leadership and board to discuss okay thank you madam chair thank you Mr Lane yes um has the court issued any rulings in this case of which uh we should be aware so there has not been a ruling yet on the Motions to dismiss which have been ripe uh since about the end of the summer um so no substantive rulings have been have been ordered we do have preliminary uh order such as an ESI the electronic Discovery order which have been shared with uh general council's office we have uh plain of fact sheets that have also been shared um but no substantive rulings have come out of the Court thus far okayo we have to um sign in and like litigate by January 2025 correct is that what you said if we going to do this so it's it's not mandatory certainly it it would be my goal um just out of complete uh you know just being of abundance of caution it would be my recommendation to do so I I think uh we're going to fight against that satal limitations but it would be my recommendation yes and um how long would the district be fighting and litigating this I mean from past experience years months years and months so I always I I I don't have a crystal ball but I do I have been involved in these types of cases long enough to say that it's years is is accurate uh we have in other cases seen that that window is is rough around 5 years to see uh to see a trial to see a settlement um this case has been ongoing now for over a year so I would say um you know potentially an additional four years so from experience um my M was a pharmacist so I know a lot about pharmaceuticals and farmers and um these you know these companies have a lot of money time and resources right to fight this until you know we all die so uh are we prepared yeah so you know really that's why we join together as planers firm to do this on contingency and that's why we asked the judge to to appoint us on leadership because we have the financial resources to go up against um these companies our firm has gone up against Dupont has gone up against the biggest uh companies that you can imagine and and this is what we do so yes absolutely thank thank you so that's the end of our board questions we'll be voting on this board members later under new business so thank you very much thank you all happy holidays thank you so Inspector General do you have a report for us tonight yes I do too only two of us um recently the board attended a workshop and there's a couple of items that were brought up just want to clarify and reemphasize with the board um many of the board members are very versed in this and it's handling complaints and uh one of the the indications was that when you receive a complaint um from one of the schools or constituent about bringing it to the board office or through the board constituent process and that's perfect for those things that I call customer service the bus is late the lights are on at the football field or I don't agree with the new policy that's going forward um but any complaints involving misconduct I urge the board to be very cautious on where and how you file those complaints um for ethics complaints against board members please remember to check Florida statute 1112 part three as well as policy 1.0929 2 302 and 324 that covers how where and when those are reported misconduct against administrators and teachers have the Fuller Education Code uh 102. 796 and policy 1092 2.62 and 302 for complaints regarding discrimination under Ada um remember there's we have section um sub chapter 2 uh Public Services title 2 Section 12132 plus also the HIPPA laws as well as policy 2.0 3726 302 1092 and 306 and 319 any allegations or complaints regarding discriminatory practices um as defined by Florida Statutes 7.60 and 7611 as well as Florida Civil Rights Act and policy 1.91 2.62 302 305 1092 and 3.19 when you're talking about protected disclosures and adverse personal actions that follows Under The whistleblow Whistleblower statutes 112. 3187 188 also there are certain uh confidentiality protections that are very cautious about if you forward an email and that is a whistleblower complaint that complaint its name is essentially now handed out to everybody um please also look at 3.02 1092 3.28 and 2.62 for policies and lastly the child abuse we're all mandatory reporters so we have to do immediate reporting and sending it to the board office or to to miss Sinclair would not be appropriate there's also confidentiality requirements and exceptions um so please be concerned of that please remember that there's also a policy that takes away all of that issues of having to check statutes codes I haven't even touched the Florida administrative code and policy is that we're all required to follow and that is the cares that's part of 1.1 92 so all of those misconduct allegations are required to be reported by everybody in this room and everybody that is part of the district through cares so you by all means can go through and look at the statutes and reach out to The General Counsel and she can advise you as what is a protected disclosure what isn't um but essentially you can you can also reach out to my office but the general counsel is the person that's charged with advising you on how to handle that but a very simple way to do it is just follow to cares um through the cares complaint process we have a 1 1800 number s we've already started an investigation or a review or an audit and many times they will contact numerous people and Care is supposed to ensure that only one entity is investigating it you don't have five different units looking at something and heaven forbid there's a criminal investigation going on and you now just exposed the allegation basically to the public so please be very cautious if you have any questions or concerns you can always reach out to the general council's office or myself thank thank you thank you that's going to bring us now to our elected officials and delegates I'll call you two at a time so that you're ready to come on board James gavros president CEO of the Education Foundation followed by Gordon loffer CTA president forgive my back forgive my front uh good evening Madam chair superintendent Burke members of the school board uh the last 30 days uh we've been moving and I mean actually really moving uh I'm pleased to say that by 5:00 tomorrow we will be totally vacated from our uh the Rivier Beach current home of Red Apple Supply as well as our administrative offices in the 10 building as our new building is now operational so we've been moving into our Center for Public School excellence and Innovation over the last couple of weeks uh staff has moved in now the the devil's in the details as we put in the it and the phones and all those things will be happening during the break but I want to pause before I move forward just just to thank the school board to thank the superintendent for all of your support of the Education Foundation and specifically our red apple Supply program over the years even as we prepared for this move um kind of shutting down our operation in early November in this one semester we still distributed $564,000 62 worth of school supplies in just this first half of a truncated uh semester as we got ready for the move things you learn our contractor telling us about the cube Farm stupid me I went out in the grass and was looking for things growing apparently Cube farm is where you have all the little cubicles in our offices and so when you come to our ribbon cutting on January 16th uh you're going to see this new facility and specifically our 20,000 Square ft of warehouse space and the new Red Apple Supply showroom a thank you to Meredith trim and ventus's charitable foundation for making this happen the exciting thing that I want to share with you tonight Madame chair and members of the board and superintendent Burke is how the community is really rallying around and this this new facility is beating to catch the imagination we're in the final details of closing uh the arrangements with cbs2 many of us who have been around Palm Beach County for years are familiar with the bill Brooks food drive project Thanksgiving that the news channels do cbs12 is adopting the Education Foundation and starting with the kickoff at our ribbon cutting on January 16th they're going to have a month-long push to stuff the bus and we're going to link it to Valentine's Day because we want to love our teachers and love our Public School schools will have buses spread throughout the county where businesses citizens companies country clubs will be encouraged to bring school supplies and literally stuff the bus so we can put some things on the shelves of those 20,000 Square F feet in our warehouse to make sure that when we open for shopping on January 16th we have all the supplies we need to make sure that every teacher can be served and so with this increased capacity as you've heard me say in the past few months our goal in the next 5 years is to be able to serve all 183 of our Palm Beach County Public Schools we're right now serving 91 and as I said in the first half of the Year Distributing $530,000 worth of school supplies so even as we've begun our move uh we're still fully operational we're funding the grants the go teach programs we're going to come out of the break uh on January 6th 10 days later we have our ribbon cutting at 10 o'clock in the morning on January 16th on January 30th if you're not at the ribbon cutting on January 30th we invite you to the annual celebrate the great which will take place at the center at 1515 Barton Road all of our events will be held at that Center uh the architect assures us that we can get uh about 350 people in that facility for our special events so the center is going to be a true Center for Public School excellence and Innovation we invite all of you to come see it to see what we're doing and more importantly to continue celebrating our work and as we move into January as you see those teasers on cbs2 news to encourage Palm Beach County to stuff the bus so that no teacher in our school system ever again has to dip into their pocket to buy school supplies Madam chair we are your Education Foundation a happy holiday season to one and all thank you thank you always a difficult act to follow but that seems to be my plight uh wonderful to hear all that wonderful news uh James uh good evening Vice uh good evening chair BR Vice chair Andrews uh superintendent Berg members of the board honored guests I am Gordon loffer president of the classroom teachers Association we are here tonight at the halfway point of the 2025 school year and I'm sure we're all ready to enjoy the winter break that is before us so at this last meeting of 2024 I do want to draw your attention to two very important matters we will face in the 2025 legislative session both of which are already among your highest legislative priorities first the recently passed school start times legislation next two attempts to break uh public SE Union's got to be one of the worst bills I've seen with respect to how it impacts districts like ours it is just imperative that we do all that can be done to achieve allowances for local school boards to make the decisions about start times the difficulties large urban districts like ours face with start times have way too much potential to damage our work educating all students as elected local leaders you are in the best position to make starttime decisions for our schools and you should be enabl to do so secondly your support for increases in state funding so that all teacher salaries can be raised sufficiently to attract and retain more highly effective certified teachers to Palm Beach County and to address salary compression for all teachers has never been more timely I know all too well the morale of our teachers two years ago and how it increased when funding increases made the 7% salary increases possible please know that I stand ready to support all of you in these matters for now I wish you and everyone present the best this holiday season has to offer take time with family and friends rest and return in January fully prepared for the work we have ahead of us thank you and have a good evening thank you Erica h vice president of Junior Achievement of the pal Beach of Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast and Mabel Melton vice president of the Hispanic education Coalition good evening chairwoman bril Vice chair Andrews board members and superintendent Burke my name is Erica hen VP of education at Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast so as part of our update we are thrilled to welcome another Erica her name is Erica egerman as our new director of Elementary programs Erica has worked with us previously and is a supporter of not only the palmach County School District but of Ja she's volunteered at many of our Career Fairs throughout the years she brings a great deal of passion and expertise and she's really excited to inspire and Empower our Young Learners across the community this fall we also proudly hosted our ja career exploration fairs for our high school students throughout Palm Beach County bringing together over 138 dedicated volunteers from more than 57 companies so hopefully you've had a chance to come out to Palm Beach State College and see those High School Career Fairs happening these events have provided students opportunities to explore diverse career paths engage with professionals and prepare for Bright Futures additionally through uh 3de field trips our sophomores from lakew worth High School visited the Singer Island Oceanfront Resort sounds nice right for the Discover of the Palm Beaches event freshman visited fpnl buildings and took tours in December and juniors from lakew worth participated in a pitch competition so we have young entrepreneurs here in Palm Beach County showing off their skills additionally we work with with our elementary school so we've brought the ja career exploration fairs in the last couple of months to Glade View Elementary as well as Jerry Thomas I know Miss King was here earlier um this has connected 950 students with over 65 volunteers sparking curiosity and empowering students to dream big about their Futures lastly through Global entrepreneurship week last month we've engaged just under 13,000 high school students across 14 schools in Palm Beach County Global entrepreneurship empowers students to explore entrepreneurship our students are natural creative thinkers right and discover the skills needed for success with stories that celebrated Innovation and resilience students and Educators alike were left inspired to dream big and embrace their entrepreneurial spirit I want to thank you all board members teachers principals and all of the District staff for taking care of the kids within our community three of my own as well we hope hope that everyone has a very restful it's been earned and happy holidays thank you thank [Music] you good evening um good evening chairwoman Brill uh Vice chair Andrews board members superintendent I am Abel Melton I'm Vice chair of the Hispanic education Coalition subject tonight is lizard poop how sad and embarrassing that one of our District's most historic schools is now widely known as a joke punchline a majority of Lakeworth high school students are Latino so it's no wonder the members of the Hispanic education Coalition have been inundated with Community calls expressing anger bewilderment and disappointed disappointment that the schools pool has been closed amid huge on flaring media attention it is true that the district has spent considerable money over the years to maintain the school and it's likely the pool has outlived its useful life but replacing it with a parking lot isn't what the community wants first the pool is not the school's only major problem put the auditorium on that list but the gymnasium on that list too and the picnic area where students eat lunch how was the school this District asset was allowed to deteriorate to such a low point that it now is the butt of iguana jokes would this have happened in say bokeh or Wellington are the district's maintenance dollars being spent wisely most important are they being spent fairly second it seems the district and the county and the City of Lakeworth Beach are in discussions to build a new community pool that's a good thing but there must be far greater transparency in that process the community deserves to know what's a foot every step of the way and respectfully given our history of tackling tough challenges together it would be appropriate for a HEC representative to be part of that ongoing effort couple of closing thoughts congratulations to all of the new members of the school board HEC is committed to continuing our important collaboration with you and your fellow board members and your Administration for the benefit of all students and faculty and support staff hex second annual L welta Bike Tour occurred December 1st at Dr ging uh Haim Garcia High School this is our most important fundraising event of the year on behalf of our yearly scholarship program this year Dr Garcia's High School will be among the list of recipients for the scholarship program we have our first graduating class and we want to thank again all participants but especially board member Andrews superintendent Burke Ed Tierney Jamie Wyatt and the District staff that attended and supported us thank you for your time and your attention and have a joyous holiday season with your families stay safe I'll see you in 2025 thank you thank you board members that's going to bring us to our agenda item speakers but first on behalf of the entire School Board I'd 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 note of your issues and we follow up with the District administration regarding them as a reminder agenda 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 school board policy speakers whose comments do not relate to the topic that the speaker indicated or are not otherwise educationally relevant is required for non-agenda speaker 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 residence we thank you for joining us wish you a very happy holiday and I apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name so we have two speakers right now the I'll call you both of your names so that you can both come up and that's Andre Fades and jamalia R so if either or both here I see Andre coming up thank you please state your name uh greetings my name is Andre Thaddius uh Lakeworth Florida um hello to the uh Madam chair Madam Vice chair uh superintendent and the board um I am the executive director for connected greatness we are a male mentoring program uh in the Palm Beach County School District we've been around for eight years uh we started off in 2016 with eight Boys in uh Boon Beach right now we've served over 177 boys and we just want to say today to uh thank you to the board uh thank you for the opport opportunity for us to partner with the school district uh to work with our young African-American boys from fifth grade through High School uh seniors um just recently this class of 2024 was our first cohort of boys who are graduated high school um there were seven of them four are in college three are in our work track right now and the most important thing we want to say is allowing us to be on the campuses of the schools here in Palm Beach County we are on the campus of Village Academy Congress Middle School Carver Middle School trade WIS Middle School South tech prep and Freedom Shores Elementary um we work with these students that are selected by the administration guidance counselors or teachers um for not just the academic support but also the empowerment to make sure that they feel appreciated that they feel seen and that they are heard right a lot of a lot of the issues that we see here in the district a lot of times on the negative side the African-American boys always at the top of the list we're trying to fix that we're trying to change that narrative uh to empower our young men to know that their Excellence their greatness and their opportunities uh is fair and is well earned uh through the support of all of our mentors um we would like to thank you for the opportunity um for theou uh working with it because we have a lot more work to do here in the district and I know I want to do a special shout out to our Mr Keith Oswald who's been uh a champion and very supportive and we definitely appreciate that and from this point on as the executive director I want to make sure that we continue our growth but we want to make sure that we make a true difference uh here in Palm Beach County schools for all of our African-American Boys in Palm Beach County Schools thank you very much seasons greetings thank you Miss R is she here miss R okay she's not going to speak so that's going to bring us board members to the consent agenda I'll take a motion now to approve the consent agenda motion by Mrs Whitfield second by miss saveto any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously we don't have any unfinished business that's going to bring us to new business Mr superintendent cao4 C4 I recommend the board approved the request for Kimberly kums K12 Holocaust studies program planner to travel out of the country to attend the 80th aniversary of the liberation of asts being held in Poland scheduled from January 23rd until January 29th 2025 motion by Mrs Andrews second by Miss Branch any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously cw2 I recommend the school board approved the inter agency agreement regarding truant children between the school board of Palm Beach County Florida Department of ju Juvenile Justice circuit 15 and Florida Department of Children and Family circuit 15 and auth I'm sorry this is a long one uh circuit 15 and authorized the superintendent or is designated to sign all documents required for the implementation of this agreement this inter agency agreement shall commence on December 19th 2024 and continue until such time as this agreement is canceled or replaced by a new agreement between the parties and authorize the superintendent or is designed to sign all documents required for the implementation of this agreement okay motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Miss Branch I believe this item was pulled by someone I don't know who Mrs Whitfield um yeah so it's very simple on page six um we have online uh or number bulletin number six um we have Dr Glenda Sheffield listed in here with her phone number and her email address and since she will no longer be with us in a couple weeks I thought might be better just to put it as a um as an updated just position rather than uh her specific name and and phone number and email address so just that small edit it that's all I welcome that change we can make I think it makes perfect sense and we will try to avoid using names in the future and just stick with titles Mr Oswell that's something that we can change right I'm Sorry Miss Carona sorry um the agreement has already been signed by all the other parties so what we can do is provide notice to the other parties in writing that there's been a change in CAO and provide the new cao's um name and address and contact information um but I would not recommend that we make any changes to the agreement itself because it's already been signed by everyone else okay if that's satisfactory to the board we'll just we'll uh notify the parties and we'll make sure that going forward we avoid putting names in the contracts thank you thank you any other discussion seeing none all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously cosos one I recommend the board approve the greater Florida Consortium of school board's 2025 legislative program as submitted motion by Mrs Whitfield second by Mr Ferguson any discussion seeing none all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously ld1 I recommend the board approve the insulin litigation retainer agreement with the Ferrara Law Group I'm sorry the ferar law firm PA and their co-counsel Weiss serota hman healthman Cole and Beerman PL for legal services and representation including filing suit on behalf of the board against insulin manufacturers Andor Pharmacy benefit managers based upon allegations that they have artificially inflated the the price of insulin at the expense of self-funded health plans and their members and beneficiar Aries and authorize the board chair superintendent and general counsel to sign all necessary documents okay motion by Mrs Whitfield second by miss savedo any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously to I recommend the board approve the Personnel addendum as submitted motion by Mrs Andrew second by Mrs Whitfield any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously you cw1 I recommend the board approv development of proposed revised policy 5.30 reporting child abuse abandonment or neglect motion by Miss Branch second by Miss Sao I actually pulled this policy this policy that's being developed has to do with it it states in it under the purpose that its all District employees including teachers administrators support staff and mandate are mandated reporters when they are suspected child abuse abandonment or neglect and they have to be reported to the Florida Department of Children families and so later in the policy when it talks about posting this information on line 113 and I've already mentioned this by the way to the superintendent but we are the ones that write the policy so when it comes to policies we can be more stringent or you know or you know tighter on or offer more than what the state does we can't do less but we can do more so the policy says as required by Florida statute 10006 0612 all schools shall post the materials provided by the Florida Department of Education in a prominent place at each School site and on the school's website along with the policies and procedures so the reason I pulled it and I told the superintendent is that I would like us to have a poster or something placed where employees congregate whether it's break rooms if you place the notice in a school at one place it's not going to serve as a reminder to let's say School Food Service workers or bus drivers everybody that works to us is obligated under law to report to DCF when they suspect the abuse they can't make a judgment call they have to report it so my suggestion and then we can put in the policy that it's going to be posted in places where employees congregate my suggestion and the district can figure out how to do it is to have something short and sweet stating that it has to be reported and the phone number and who you call and I think that will serve as a constant reminder in break rooms you know throughout the schools throughout throughout our different facilities so that's what I was suggesting I don't know how you all feel about that if you all seem to agree we can leave it to the superintendent we can ask legal to incorporate some language into the policy that it's not posted in a place in the schools general counsel you wanted I just have I just have a question for clarification are you as are you looking to change the current language that's in there because this is this is for adoption tonight am I correct no this is development development oh this is this is in development and and so my my comment is that I'd like to broaden this language not that we're posting it we can State the Florida statute requires this but I'd like to see additional language saying that we are going to be placing notices in in places throughout the district where employees congregate and I would entrust the district to make sure that it's in the in transportation in the break rooms there you know in the kitchens you know and for Food Service workers so that we don't come into a situation where an employee may have a question and not know what to do it will serve as a constant reminder then I if I if I may you mentioned some specific language that you wanted to see posted no so I don't have any specific language I would leave that to the superintendent but clearly it would have to say that all something to the you know pulling from the statute all employees are required to I would use the statute and put the phone number and you know I would leave it to Communications and the district to figure that out but it's just you know a poster somewhere where people can see it that will remind them what to do because we take the training right when school starts but in February someone might encounter something and they may report it to their principal and it may not be reported to DCF and that's a violate violation of Statute so I'd like to see us keep that up as a reminder yes we're at the perfect stage to do that okay yes I agree it's an important message uh We've really got a couple audiences here you know it's employees also our parents and I think that's why we want a prominent place also for the school Community but we can certainly add on to that and post it and like you said where our employees gather and uh I'll work with Mr Oswald in our general council's office to bring back some language for adoption that addresses that okay Miss Sao requ yeah I um I definitely think it's a good idea and how about uh we do them in Spanish as well um and then maybe put them in the bathrooms you know vending machines or the different areas uh that we know that our um employees gather but definitely in Spanish I would love to see something like that with a simple language too so it's not overwhelming because in my lineer work if you don't get people right away to get interested in something they will not read it it'll be like another thing on the wall so it needs to be more like a question um and then maybe go into the explanation but not so much blah blah blah because it's too dried and people just won't won't read it and let's add Haitian Creole also okay um next is Miss Andrews yes I was going to say Haitian Creole but I just want to say to miss BR this is so important because many of our bus drivers they're dealing with our children every single day and they're not coming into the school they may use the restro room but they're on a tight schedule you think about our maintenance workers and all of these people who interface with our children every day so we really do need to go to those sites as well as schools so great idea thank you all right just for the audience I want to mention that we also require all of our employees to go through the mandatory reporting training but I think these reminders these posters will help augment that make sure it's top of mind for everybody thank you okay thank you okay p cw2 I oh I'm sorry we still need to vote on the prior policy for development okay so all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously okay P cw2 I recommend the board approved development of proposed revised policy 5.82 teen Dating Violence or abuse motion by Miss Woodfield second by Mr Lane Mr Lane did you pull it I thought I pulled you okay so okay I have comment on it so okay um motion by Mrs Woodfield second by Mrs Andrews Mr Lane sure we're talking about Teen Dating Violence we've got this policy here and if you look at it um under the definitions uh 3B it says abuser aggressor means a person who uses Dating Violence or abuse to establish and maintain power and control over the victim or Target of his behavior to my way of thinking if somebody uses Dating Violence or abuse I don't care why they do it um what this does is it says that you have to prove that someone used Dating Violence or abuse in order to maintain and establish power and control over the victim my way of thinking I I don't like that language I think that it's it establishes a two-prong test that I don't feel is appropriate if you do it it's enough I don't care what you're thinking and I don't care what your motivation is um you shouldn't be doing it ons school property or you shouldn't be doing it at all um additionally it defines Dating Violence or abuse as abuse used by one person in a current or past dating relationship to exert power and control over another once again if you're engaged in um abusive conduct I don't care what your motivation is additionally if you look at the Florida Statutes chapter 784.046 there is a definition of Dating Violence which is different than the definition in this policy and by Florida statute Dating Violence means violence between individuals who have or have had a continuing and ins significant relationship of a romantic or intimate nature and violence once again means any assault aggravated assault battery aggravated battery sexual assault sexual battery stalking aggravated stalking kidnapping or false imprisonment or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or death by a person against any other person so for a multitude of reasons number number one is I don't care what the intent is of the perpetrator number two um I think that you're creating a two-step process that makes it harder to actually punish somebody because you're trying to not only show that they did it but you have to show why they did it um and third of all you've got a situation where you've got a policy that's in contravention to a statute it's my understanding that we got this model language from the state um I think that there's significant problems uh in this language and and although the state recommended it I don't think that it's in the best interest of our students to have this happen I'd like to ask Mr Oswald and perhaps Miss Carmona to respond to those comments uh and explain what latitude we have with making these changes yeah I think we got to uh put in context that this is in the context of teen dating we do have other policies that protect students with bullying harassment that also talk about abuse and goes into harass harassment and definitions there the definition in this context is when it happens with teen dating so are you saying that the definition of the abuser aggressor is too broad in yes that's exactly what I'm saying so we could go back to look at that and offer we could I mean the the so there are several policies that come into play Whenever students are engaging in behavior that could rise to the level of sexual harassment sexual assault or violent behavior of any kind right um this is not the only policy that covers that this policy my understanding from reading the intent from the state is supposed to be a broader policy to protect students to kind of prevent things from escalating to a large level where then there are criminal consequences that would then lead to U you know possible filing of charges under you know using the definition you provided um in this case the state kind of waters it down for students and puts it more in terms of what happens among kids right one of the things they do for example is the criminal code requires a long-standing relationship so any of you have ever had you know if you've had a teenager in your life they can be in a relationship for a day or a month or a year right and so this kind of covers the reality of our kids right kids in schools who fall in love one day and they're out of love the next um it also talks about things like insults um the other word I was looking for let me look for it here there's um social exclusion social sabotage those are things things that happen among kids that may not really happen among adults um so this is more in the school context and it's to deal with the proactive measures to stop that behavior from happening once that behavior is you know addressed the school then moves on to looking at code of conduct consequences and our code of conduct then has a variety of offenses that might cover the behavior it could could be cyber stalking it could be physical aggression it could be battery and so it's a layered approach is the way I I interpret this policy and this is kind of the first stop in terms of when you see something happening among two kids how do we address it immediately and try to stop it and that's why we have things like staya away agreements change of classes all those kinds of things I have no problem with all of those facets of this statute or this policy my problem is with the specific language that I discussed which was that you engage in violence or abuse in order to establish and maintain power and control I my the language that I object to is both in the definition of abuser aggressor and also in terms of Dating Violence the language appears in both places that's the problem I have I don't think that we need to M to to try to look into somebody's mind to find out why they're doing it they shouldn't be doing it so that's kind of the part where where I have a problem with it there is some other language that's used um with the Department of aded defining the abuser a person who physically sexually verbally or emotionally hurts a dating partner so simplifies it to your point right but the problem is is if you look at even as a prosecutor would if you're talking about all these things you prove that one of these things occurred and then the second prong of that is that they did it in order to establish power and control over the victim which once you're creating a burden that's much higher if you had to prosecute this or even punish somebody within our own system how you going to prove the same the point and what if they're not doing it to establish power maybe they're doing it because they're a jerk um so yeah once again they shouldn't be doing it so if I may make a suggestion and I know Mr Ferguson wants to speak on this is that you know you get with Mr Oswald and you know you can work it through so that you know come up with something this is only in development this isn't approving the policy so it might make sense to sit together and and go through your concerns so that they can be addressed Mr Ferguson thank you madam chair I assume that the change to section five was on the heels of the um incident here in the in the district that uh guarded a lot of news attention at least locally um but I still it still it still appears to be kind of ambiguous and you might end up having the same thing happen all over again so what am I talking about the part that's been that is proposed to be struck through says in cases involving an alleged perpetrator who is of an adult age alleged minor victim which that technically is not quite the same certain suspicions of abuse must be must be reported to the Florida abuse hotline of local law enforcement pursuant to 39201 of Florida statute so now we have the proposed language that says any staff member who has knowledge or Reason to suspect a student is a victim of teen Dating Violence or abuse must file a report with DCF immediately by calling the hotline number or filing a report online I guess the question is what is immediately I didn't see to attorney Lane's point I didn't see where we actually identify what it means to be immediate because I feel like that case if you all think about it that was part of the conundrum that the state attorney was in to Mr Lane's point in terms of establishing who knew knew what when they when did they know it and who did they actually report it to so it might take a little more um Feathering shall we say but I would encourage you to come up with language that is a little more detailed in terms of what constitutes immediacy is it 24 hours after learning of I don't know you all are looking through all the data but that definitely seems ambiguous and I don't really think it closes that hole that you seek to close we can definitely add that piece and piggy back on mandatory according policy okay thank you thank you and so I suggest you know getting with Mr Lane and also Mr Ferguson if you want to take a peek before it comes back to us also um to make sure that it that it meets what you're say I think bman reain has it all wrapped up I was going to applaud you but uh yeah but I did that five was one issue that I I saw but I I understand your intent but let's try to close that up thank you okay so all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously right on time that leads us to our non-agenda speakers I'm going to call you up two at a time Carl Muhammad and Constance Holmes Mr Muhammad I'm Carl Muhammad um and I wanted to talk about two of the words that I've heard tonight opportunity and child abuse um I come tonight on behalf of Lil Lisa's Wanda youth enrichment program out of the city of Riviera Beach where we're trying to um bring some culturally relevant ideas to the um Palm Beach County and we understand that the Florida law 1342 if we would look at it from a lawyers perspective we would see that we've been abused and we've been neglected in that kind of effort as it relates to uh improving the quality of education for African-American children and um to the new board members we're offering u a opportunity for you to come to our community so that you can get some insight from our perspective as opposed to dealing with what you deal with uh from your your perspective and we in the African-American Community we're preparing not just for Christmas we're preparing for a a cultural experience when we deal with kuanza this is a a a a program that is meant to give us back what was taken away from us when we were brought here and made slaves and robbed of our names language culture and God and um in this celebration it starts on the 26th and it ends on the 1 and the first one is yoia and it talks about Unity the second one is C uh kuji uh Galia which talks about self-determination and then yuima which talks about Collective work and responsibility and Yu Jama which talks about Cooperative economics and Nia which is our purpose and um Kumba which is our creativity and then the last there's um imman which is our faith and I understand based upon my um station here in Palm Beach County and what I've been trying to do as it relates to dealing with um the schools in Palm Beach County I know that we have a big problem with when it comes with dealing with the reality of what is needed for African American children and I continuously tell you that you don't have anyone inside of your staff that is qualified from the commun perspective to have a real meaningful dialogue with us you see how we talked about um making advancements for six or seven children we're talking about the entire State of Florida when we talk about the Florida law it's Florida statute 1000 3.42 and I wish and pray that you would look into it and then if you should meet an African-American child during this period of time try to encourage them to focus on uh Kwanza and the meaning and the purpose of it because it's very needed inside of the education of their process and we are trying feverishly and we don't seem to um have any friends thus far so we're reaching out to your new board member and we I ain't gonna say we don't have no friends I'm GNA say that we haven't had no advancements as it relates to our question okay go ahead hi my name is Elizabeth Maldonado sorry my English is really bad um I have a ch um my son have six year um in AUST 29 and write the test for the teacher and say one children touch my son in the pinent and Str and September 3 and text again what happened excuse me ma'am what's your name Elizabeth Maldonado okay um so we don't have you on the list right now we can let you speak after the other speakers if you'd like um I'm asking somebody see me know I'm I'm sorry the next the person that needs to speak is constant Holmes the board I think can agree to let you speak at the end of the meeting but we can't have you speak right now because you're not on the list did you register to speak can we can we have somebody speak to her please outside and and see if we can help her okay thank you constant Holmes are you here okay Richard Leeds and Daisy Daniels okay Richard Leeds Daisy Daniels okay Jill Coleman oh we got one I'm sorry I'm going too quickly good evening everyone my name is Daisy Daniel uh my teach ID is 109 8370 I want to wish everyone happy holidays and I also wanted to to congratulate the new school board members I've been coming here since February I've never had been to a board meeting at all I've been in the district 11 years uh five years as a general Elementary School teacher four years as a full-time sub going to different schools all over Palm Beach County and two years as a school counselor it wasn't until I did the two years as a school counselor that I really saw the impact of what counseling services in public schools what it does for children and how it helps them that got me interested in looking at the shortage I had already been talking a lot to a lot of counselors bhps that also help with mental health the family counselors I talked to principles assistant principles so when I started uh thinking about coming here I asked all my friends I have a lot of teacher friends and I just wanted to bring this up because I think this is very important for everyone to know not one teacher friend and I continue to ask for them to come not one wanted to come to the school board meeting now before I came back in February the vision I had in my mind of a Schoolboard meeting were you know people fighting arguing things I saw during covid I didn't want to come either uh but they all said the same thing no you're wasting your time I'm not going to go there they're they're not going to change anything and when they say they they're talking about you know the district whoever it is whoever is in charge I'm not into politics at all and so I come here thinking that all of you hear the concerns that I have that all the speakers have and that you have some kind of power to make change things um I did want to read the definition of a psychological term okay that I think that maybe some of these teachers are experiencing and it's called learned helplessness let me read it it's a state that occurs after a person has been repeatedly experienced a stressful situation they believe they cannot control or change the situation so they do not try even when opportunities for change are available so I think you know mental health students teachers they're all connected if the mental health isn't addressed it's going to affect the classrooms it's going to affect the teachers thank you for your time thank you Jill Coleman Jacqueline major hi I'm Jill Coleman I'm a mother of two and I live in Palm Beach Gardens thank you for having me here um I wanted to to talk to you again about getting the phones out of our kids schools um and the first thing I want to do is share a story of another mom in another County where she got to visit two middle schools one of them has phones one of them just started the Yonder pouches this year she said she walked around with the principals in the hallways and the lunch and lunchrooms and she said the difference was Unreal in this phone the school with the phones the kids are like this they're quiet they're sitting down they're cautious in the other school only a few months in the kids are laughing they're talking they're looking at each other in the eyes they're being silly they're being kids and most importantly they're not afraid that another kid will pull out their phone and film them making some mistake that then they'll upload to the internet and forever mock them they're not going to be hurt they get to be kids again so one school's getting has kids giving their getting their childhood back the other school they're all so cautious so I wanted to talk to you also about ways that I can be helpful for you and one of the most important pieces of feedback I've gotten is you don't need to hear from me as a parent you need to hear from other administrators so I'm going to send Tony Sinclair tomorrow um a webinar done by Texas administrators for other administrators who've implemented the Yonder pouches in their schools they'll tell you the pros the cons what's happened what hasn't the second is I'm going to get a list of other teachers or other principles and administrators who would be willing to talk to you um if you are interested in doing a pilot program for the years 25 to 26 next year in any of your schools so then you can talk to real principles and administrators who have gone through this the third thing I'm looking to help you with is funding the Yonder pouches cost money and it's going to be a decent sized budget but we can tap into Title One and the flags program um there's apparently a million and half dollars that hopefully we can tap into to help fund this because you will need it and then lastly I'm here and available I did work in tech for very many years I'm a mom now who just cares so much about helping our kids um get past these very addictive devices um what my goal is for you is to really understand what a blessing and what a good thing it would be for the kids to have seven or eight hours a day without these devices where they can talk to their teachers a teachers will be happier they can talk to their friends and they can be children who get to learn again so thank you I'll reach out through Tony thank you Jill um Jacqueline major and uh Nitra Grant Strahan are either of you here please come up thank you good evening can can you all hear me cuz I I'm I'm a teacher as well so I like to project all right good evening board members and superintendent Burke and board chair and vice chair my name is Anitra Grant stra and um I'm a resident of Del re Beach and I am here regarding School District policy 5.0 one15 concerning student IDs the policy gives students options to how they want to display their IDs the only requirement is that students present their IDs upon request my daughter has presented her ID upon request and has been given four referrals for not wearing her D around her neck I have requested parent conferences since the first referral and I have been ignored the requests have been copied cc to area and Regional superintendence and I have not gotten any responses I thought what am I doing wrong I'm trying to follow the proper protocol the only reason I may have is that I'm a black parent with a black child my child was denied entrance into the building like other students as a result of her not wearing her idea around her neck her instructional time has been compromised because she has been sent to ISS and has gotten to well she had to serve lunch detentions as a result of her referrals she said Mommy I am tired of being in ISS I haven't done anything wrong I agreed with my daughter and I said I'm a black parent with a black child if students IDs are not around their necks but are shown to administrators and staff they are yelled at by JROTC instructors lined up and sent to the media center to purchase another ID with an army lanyard this process is causing students to have to pay to attend school I didn't I didn't know they had to pay to attend school the morning process causes them to miss breakfast and they are tarded to class they are being denied Services which is also a violation of the school district policy the school policy of making students wear IDs around their next conflicts with the district policy and when I question it my daughter received Progressive discipline for not wearing her ID around her neck let's be clear I am not saying that the IDS are not important for the safety of our students and should not be worn I am simply stating that students should not be bullied into wearing them around their necks if the school district po policy gives them options as to how their IDs can be displayed my daughter is following School District policy and exercising her options on how their IDs can be displayed she and other students like herself should not be bullied and harassed because they have black parents and they are black children I cannot change how the country perceives me however I have the right I have the right as a parent to have a parent conference thank you thank you okay board members that's going to bring us to our discussion items the first item is brd1 Mr Ferguson cessation of suspension for students for level one and fractions thank you madam chair so for the new board members I am the board liaison to the ddec um we normally meet every month uh Miss postal gave you all the presentation as to uh our November meeting so we update our policies on an annual basis so I'm I'm bringing this to your attention because I want us to really dig into specifically 5.18.12 and 51813 which are the student codes of conduct for K through five Mr Ferguson I'm I'm really sorry would you be willing to hold off on that I didn't realize that the other speakers come back in with someone that can help us board members I'd like us to approve waving the rules to allow her to speak to us tonight okay we have a motion by Mrs Andrew second by Miss Sao any discussion all in favor all opposed we've waved our rules and we would like to invite you up to speak thank you sorry um I have a a boy six years old um in August 29 uh the boy um my child and test the the teacher and September 3 Tes again the teacher and no call police no nothing September 11 meeting with the both teacher and me and say again happening again and she say me oh no no it's separate it's not happened no my boy is no moreal with me and November 19 in the doctor he have an infection in the pine and told the doctor is for foul the boy TSH and the doctor called DCF at this point I don't have answers I have a lot of question um the school no help me no information um she visited other schools no oh she visited other offices to try to get help other locations um I don't have n name for this happen and when me reading tyon n is only in English no Spanish um in the section A can you please read for me see okay she's referring to this section number eight along with similar information required by policy 5.1 the contact information is to be posted in highly visible locations at each School including the main office the guidance waiting area and student services as well as on the district's website I'm going for a school no finding in Forest school I don't know what happened um I want answer I have a lot to answer who answer okay Mr superintendent yes uh Miss Bishop would you please get the speaker's contact information so we can follow up accordingly yeah I already have it and I will rir her to the office but she just wanted to express her concern um and she also said that none of that was in Spanish so that was concerning to her as well yes and we could you please just share your name for the record Elizabeth Maldonado thank you Miss Maldonado okay thank you okay we're going to now return to Mr Ferguson um that's brd1 sure so what I was saying is that annually uh new board members we update our policies and so I would imagine that that we'll review all of our policies probably I would imagine would it be March and we finally approve it in May or we start reviewing them in May Madam council with respect to the uh student code of conduct it it varies but I'll ask uh uh either Lisa or Keith to speak to when uh the student code of conduct would be coming back around but it varies I mean it the the purpose and intent is to get it um back in front of the board annually uh but that will depend on um sometimes what comes out of legislation so there's a lot of fact s that go into when it would come back around but um I don't know if you if there's a plan um already in place as to when it would be coming back around for this for next year well we know it's going to come up before next school year so that's the point of it all so I don't want to belabor the point because you know it's getting a little late but particularly to the new board members but also us us oldheads now I guess I'll be an old head now um there's there's a little bit of a conflict as I see it between 5.18.12 and 51813 collectively which I'll refer to as the student code of conduct and part of 5.09 which is titled student attendance so I'll read you paragraph two first sentence of paragraph two of policy 5.09 this is something that we as a board so even me we approve this uh last year the board believes that regular and punctual School attendance play important roles in a student's achievement as there's a strong correlation among regular School attendance academic achievement and the completion of school now why do I say this because at the Florida School Board Association at the Council of great City schools and even at the Florida uh Consortium of school boards we've had very robust conversations about this absenteeism epidemic that is kind of that seems to have Arisen follow on the hills of the pandemic and so we're having we're we're experiencing great pain pain actually pain physical and emotional pain trauma if you will trying to get kids to see the value of a full day at school weeks at school not just coming once every two weeks for a day and then going back to what you were doing kind of like when we were at home you know here in palmy County as I understand is speaking to the superintendent and other and other staff members if you miss more than two days that's considered chronic absenteeism but and that and speaking to Mr um oswal in particular and superintendent Burke we have a large number of students who Miss over 10 days in a month so it's surprised you that those students probably aren't the highest and most proficient students in our district so that's bad business for us as a district and it's very bad business for them so my concern with 51812 and 5183 are a couple of different things so I'm just going to speak to the actual language in in in 5.18.12 and 5.1 1813 first and then I want to want you all to look at the data that Mr Oswell provided all of us so even the new board members I know it was resent after you all were sworn in um in November so level one list out the different different um incidents if you will violations offenses that a student um can commit that are cons considered level one being late to class late to school then it says habitual and has an asteris referral to school-based team mandatory treny unexplained absences out of assigned area leaving school grounds without permission dress code violations public displays of affection cheating on test not on your girlfriend or your boyfriend failure to comply with school rules bus rule violations computer technology misuse minor offenses whatever that means although I think it is defined in the glossery term I shouldn't have said that I think it is defined disruptive unruly Behavior or play disrespectful language confrontation lying SL misrepresentation cell phone technology violation prohibited items unauthorized sale or distribution of materials inappropriate activity Disobedience last insubordination now range of correct strategies prior to administering discipline review of Matrix of expectations retach Behavior I want to emphasize that retach behavior because when we were at the Florida School Board Association I went to one of the breakout sessions that I believe was called teaching the skill deficits and the presenter spoke to the spoke to the fact about effectively students not necessarily have it's not an issue of will so you think oh Edwin's just a bad kid he must want to be bad no sometimes Ed may just not have the skills and they analogize it to if Edwin which I never was say I was a poor reader you wouldn't very well just go stick me in the corner and punish me for being a level one reader you would give me the wraparound service that I need to jump from a one to a two to a three to a four to a five so a lot of these these outbursts or these things that fall into level one arguably and I agree now that I've had further time to reflect is more of a matter of a lack of skills and if are we not the Educators we should be out here teaching kids how to best perform so leaders should show those who are following them how to comport themselves and things of that nature back off the soap box back to what you should do when somebody commits these level one incidents coach them again that sounds like teaching to me reflective assignment maybe an apology letter what Mr Oswell said at the ddec meeting a few months back I think it might have been in September but it was this year it doesn't really matter when he said it but it was said is that our policy prohibits you from suspending students who commit level one offenses so when he said that and then immediately said but we still are seeing principles who are suspending students I took the path that okay we got two options here we can retrain the principles and if they don't get get the message before beginning of next year they need to be reassigned whether reassign means they're out of a principal ship or they're to another school because clearly you're missing a boat clearly you're not understanding that hey we need as many of these kids as possible in our schools not sitting on their kees at home separated from the educational process it just doesn't work think about how many parents almost committed crimes that Chief would could have arrested back when she was the chief of police in West Palm Beach when they were trying to teach their kids at home being an Effective Teacher is a specific skill set that only a few of us truly have so why would you ostracize a child and put them out there when you know what's going to happen by them being separated from the whole now level one actually says and this is what we need to really look at it needs to be tweak similar to some of the other um policies it happens sometimes and I miss this too so I'm not definitely not I'm badgering anyone I'm bringing this to you all's attention so that we can fix it at the appropriate time next year range of discipline actions the principal or designes may select at least one of the following from level one actions but then it says principles May authorize use of level two actions for repeated repeated serious or habitual level one incidents this is my problem right there you say it's an inconsequential activity and you say that okay we'll do these things that I just mentioned or we could have a conference with your parents I didn't go there I'm assuming you all have read this so I'm not trying to keep us here until 8:00 and I'm speaking very fast for that reason but under no circumstance does a traditional level one offense justify being suspended but then we have this contradiction in the in the rule in the policy that says but if it's quote repeated serious or habitual then you can go to level two level two allows you to suspend a student not in school suspension but out of school suspension and when I looked through the gloss strey I never really saw where it was defined what constitutes repeated how many repeats cuz to me repeat means to so you're trying to tell me that if I'm late to school twice you're going to suspend me that's asinine I remember when I was a student at be Lakes uh I don't want to say her name now but my PE coach was an AP On Assignment she told me to throw the gum away I just put the gum in my mouth so needless to say seventh grade I'm chewing the gum so you know I act like I spit it out so I went playing basketball and you know you get a little relaxed she saw me chewing the gum she wrote me up and then she's the one that prosecutes the referral she put me in inh house in school suspension but she told me I remember this even way back then she said I I would suspend you but you're a good kid I have a problem with that for some freaking gum you're going to suspend me from school and there are many kids who have that what's that term that the speaker just used uh I wrote it down and now I can't find it she spoke about the kids who have the helplessness what is it helplessness yeah the helplessness learn helpless learn helplessness there are a lot of students in this District who have a learned helplessness that oh what does it really mean and they're just one one straw away from giving up and so it seems to me asinine when we're saying we have this absenteeism epidemic we have these kids who are not necessarily as strong from a fortitude standpoint as you would otherwise want them to be who you so Caverly throw out on their behinds for these very minor offenses now when I look at the data which again Mr oswal was was kind enough to be transparent and and and provide to us I got a couple of issues with this first of all this policy level this policy um that prescribes with an O not with an E prescribes which means prohibit Outlaws if you will you suspending people for level one defenses has been on the book since at least 2019 I think it might even have been on since 2012 because I see that there was certain parts of our um Cod that have been repealed as of 2012 but irrespective of that just looking at from 2019 until today we had 5,300 kids who got suspended for level one defenses back in 2019 that dropped by 6% roughly 6% the following year to 4,900 and I'm rounding it and another 6% in 2023 to 4632 but now was spiked up this year back to 4682 now we're has my goat is this fact of the 5300 in 2019 56% of those were black the problem with that is black students only comprise 27% of our populace in 2019 in 2022 50% of the students who got suspended for level one defenses which again they had no business being suspended for were black guess what that year 26.9% of our students were black in 2023 52% of the kids that got suspended you got it they were black problem with that is again 26% of our whole population of 194,000 students only 51,000 were black we got a problem here and then this year 4,600 of our students thus far we still got still got 2025 part of this school year to go we got 2500 of them being black which is 53.8 students 27.9 of our total population so I do not I do not assume that the greater majority of these students who are being suspended are necessarily repeat offenders I think we need to tight we need to do a better job as a board this is why we get paid the not so big butts but we get paid something I think we need to do a better job of of crafting this policy so that if there are parties in positions of authority who have a bias whether they know it or not that they not it not be used to the detriment of our kids because in particularly speaking as a black male um we know that that's a particular group particular those in the lower economic um uh section of of of the community who often times are the most underresourced out of school and in school who are often considered to be behavioral problems when in fact they may have they may be stucking with this very same thing that board member Andrew is going to have to remind me of again that term of art learned helpl learned helplessness and things of that nature and we should be trying to uplift them and encourage them and so board this is like a huge thing that if we can close this I hope we'll see the total curtail of students being suspended for these very uh kind of minor type of fences if it's something that's becoming a issue of safety or or true disruption of the educational process then fine we need to craft it tightly to say okay now you go to detentions because when I look at level two it says if you repeatedly Miss detentions and things of that nature then we suspend you that's a different conversation we're trying to give you another bite of the apple and you don't want to play ball okay fine unfortunately because because you constantly are disrupting School we're going to unfortunately regrettably have to excuse you from the educational process for two days 3 days five days whatever the case may be but again for these very kind of basic minor offenses particularly when we're talking about an elementary K through five be serious I I we we have to we have to protect our students from those who might not otherwise do what we would want them to do and so again I just want to bring this to you all's attention I know we can't change it today but I'm bringing this to you all's attention and I'm hoping over the next two to three to four months that you all in your own minds research this and figure out ways this policy can be more effective we have former assistant principls former teachers here attorneys parents what have you we should be able to get this right because I believe that every year is the most important year and this is not something that should wait for another year or two or three we need to work on it right now and so I feel like I'm a little animated but I'm not agitated but I'm calling on you as my colleagues to do what's right for our kids we say that this district is the best choice this is the type of thing that will prove that to parents and students that we are in fact the best choice so thank you for the time Madam shair so thank you so I was going to make a suggestion because I think that's very serious and I think we need to look at it I my my thought and I turned to the superintendent was to see if the board has consensus I'd like to see us bring back the policy in a workshop so that we can Workshop it that I think it would be much more effective if we all have the documents in front of us definitely and we could you know all speak about it together um I think that's a more appropriate time and it'll be more constructive so we'll ask the superintendent it looks like we have consensus um we have a bunch of people that do want to speak so first it's superintendent Burke and then we'll go to the rest of you well chair bril I think we're on the same page I was going to offer that if it was the consensus of the board we can we can get a workshop scheduled to kind of dig into the related policies look at both absenteeism and um you know we do not want to be suspending students if if it's not uh we have I should just explain real quick uh we have addressed the issue with level one infractions resulting in suspension we've been able to programmatically change our student information system where it just has a hard stop that you cannot assign a discipline for a level one infraction but board member Ferguson went on to raise some additional concerns about uh the data and our experience over the years and I I think it would lend itself to a workshop if that's the pleasure of the board BR I just want to say being a substitute teacher pretty much in the class almost every day when someone misbehaves and you tell them to and it disrupts the class I'm not saying we don't need to look at the policy but they keep getting away with it and getting away with it and getting away with it it's a disruption and so I agree with the workshop thank you Mr Ferguson yeah so I'm going to start Tech Team I'm I'm going to need you to start putting subtit underneath what I say cuz I think I said that I know this has to go to a workshop I'm bringing it to y'all's attention now before we get to the workshop um as far as that goes and in respect to what a board member bran says I was a substitute teacher as well many many mo ago and there are persons that are extremely disruptive well that's what detention is for or in school suspension is for but again to actually put them out on their butts in the street that's a challenging proposition for me when I know what that ultimately leads to we talk about the homelessness or the unhoused or we talk about the the heightened unemployment rat so we talk about all these different things to a degree to a large degree for some more than others it starts with what happened or didn't happen in the school system so we're in some situations we're their last best chance and so we could be agreable and disagree on that issue um I look forward to the the conversation with you because it sounds like there's going to be one at that point in time but I'm very well aware of this point that this is not something that we were going to change today that's what I said I wanted you all to I want to put it on your radar radar today so if we can get those subtitles by January cookie for you guys um and I know we'll do a workshop here at the first available date but thank you again for for indulging indulging me uh in this in this discussion thank you Miss Branch totally agree with what you're saying but again it's a workshop not disagreeing with you but it definitely needs to be talked about because I'm been subbing the last two years currently and and you're right we are their last best chance sometimes and everybody in the community I've seen it they send the school and we are not just teachers we're therapists we're I mean we're everything to these kids because sometimes their home life is terrible but it needs to be discussed because behavior is definitely an issue thank you so that's now going to bring us to B bd2 Mr Ferguson metal detector installation my ask is that we Workshop this again because I think well I know and I'm hoping that at least three of you also agree with me that we need to install metal detectors at our middle schools and our elementaries so when I got on the board back in November of 2022 superintendent Burke asked me what was my ask you know what was what were my main platform issues what would I like to see done here in my first four years well I said installation of metal detectors and a new school in Rivier Beach so we got the metal detectors in the high school but I was under the impression that we were going to come back and install them in the middle midd school and elementary schools so I see back in May of last year we actually only we really did only limit it to high school I think that's good but we can be better by implementing them in middle school and I think it would be best if we put them at elementary school I mean one doesn't have to go very far Sandy Hook was in 2012 there was a middle school that I remember when I was in high school out in Wyoming where there was a shooting I believe a person he shot like 29 people he walked off onto the athletic field and just went crazy we have stowman Douglas which was if you all remember I said we're just somebody's day one day away we're somebody's bad day away from having our own stowman Douglas like event here in Palm Beach County which is why we need to be much more proactive and install these metal detectors and so I know that persons will say well we may have issues with with people power man Power woman power I'll just say people power in terms of persons to to monitor the the detection devices I say well that's a good problem to have we have the money for it and we need to do it because the first time somebody gets shot at a middle school 08 we found a gun at JFK Middle School this year it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't loaded thankfully but it was there so that should never have happened we should never allow a gun to come on campus people will tell you this crap about making schools like jail as a former I would say former criminal defense attorney I will assure you that jail is jail metal detectiv are not what makes jail a jail I go through metal detectives every day in in the uh Courthouse when I go on the air the airp airport when I go through most Municipal complexes I walk through metal detection devices and nobody says oh it's just like jail it's not jail at all so we need to be more proactive in that regard um we have guard houses for example in high schools why don't we have those in the middle school and elementary schools because again I've given you three examples of where evil is has has happened in places that are not high schools so don't assume that The Irate parent of an elementary school student who sees his or her former mate with someone else might not become our rate and decide to turn it Elementary School into okay Corral I'm not trying to scare anybody but I'm just being very practical and pragmatic about a thing you don't know where the issue is going to jump off and so why don't we continue to be the leader because I don't think there are any other counties in Florida at least that have the detectors um there are some few counties that I'm seeing across the country but here in Florida we've been a leader and I think we need to continue to lead we have the economic means to do so let's get these detectors and our middle schools and in our elementary schools and so again I'm putting this on the table for you all to consider I know we can't make a decision on it today but Mr superintendent I very much want to Workshop what it looks like from a chronological standpoint in terms of installing these detectors in our middle schools and then our elementary schools because thoughts and prayers just won't do it for me if and when something happens in a school that does not have those type of deterrence in their place thank you Mr Burke the uh well I agree that we're a leader in the state and that we have this the best school police department in the country um and we always talk about a layered approach to security you know from single point of entry to cameras card access door locks uh to the police officer on campus um it will be a resource issue uh what we found in Rolling them out to our high schools and I'm proud of the work we did and we did in a very thoughtful deliberate Manner and we spent considerable time with small groups of schools to make sure that the implementation would go smoothly and what we found is we as we reached some of our smaller high schools they did not have a lot of support staff to man The detectors in the morning uh because it takes a small group of people to handle passing to the laptops around the detectors and to work with with the students um and so the concern was that if we went down to the Middle School level uh the staff gets the Staffing is thinner and we we are paying employees to work additional time to to make it possible at the high school level so if we entertain going to the Middle School level or the elementary level um there's an equipment cost that's actually pales in comparison to the Staffing cost you know the the detectors themselves which you you probably need of at a large high school we have at least four sets of detectors uh those run roughly about $20,000 a set so that's that's not really insurmountable what adds up more quickly is just having the Manpower and being able to pay them to do that and potentially at middle elementary schools we could look to have to maybe add additional staff to make it possible so the board you know we are going to kick off our budget development process January 15th with a workshop um you're going to have a chance to establish your priorities I I know safety is the reigning Paramount priority for all of us so I don't expect that to change uh but I would like the opportunity to be able to present I guess some options and let you consider what the cost may be and how that may stack up against our other budgetary demands in terms of employee compensation and any programs or other considerations the board wants to entertain and um you know if that's not adequate to maybe embed that into the budget process we could entertain uh a standalone Workshop if that's the pleasure of the board thank you Mr Ferguson oh back to me already oh I thought I was second but okay um what I remember though superintendent bur in 2018 my dad died that year and I remember um on the hills of that um tragic situation down in Broward the state set aside roughly $17 million for the 17 victims so my mind you know pretty good with numbers I said we have roughly 180 schools $17 million would be about 94,000 per school I suspect that we can get one or two metal detectors for each Elementary School um in middle school and also the people that we would need to pay to protect to to oversee them if you will for probably less than that $94,000 and that peace of mind again will put us at a much higher level than the average private school and the average Charter School remember again this is not all just about safety it's also about the fact that kids don't have to necessarily go to our schools anymore we need to give them every single reason need to make that parent feel confident every single day as to why they want to send their child their most precious treasure to a school in the Palm County public school system and so we can talk about it later I understand that um but just know that in my mind 17 million I mean that's that's there and the state has already established it if if we have if we have another tragic incident like that in in the state that they're going to be doing that and so I know you're a numbers man more so than me I know Miss Frederick is over there um great CFO I'm thinking that we need to figure out how to make this work because there's a poem I heard something to the effect about excuses are the tools of the incompetent they build build monuments of nothingness those who choose who uh my brother's going to kill me those those of us who who use them sell them amount to anything and I think I think that is true though like I don't want to hear excuses why we can't do it I want to hear why we're going to do it because I want to make sure that every single person's child is as safe as they can reasonably be I know we can't we can't guard against all forms of evil but we can darn well do a little bit more than we're doing and again we're doing a good job but I want us to do our best job at all single times and that's the point of what I'm saying here is not to criticize or browbeat it's just to kind of encourage us to push the higher Mark and there's a higher mark that I know we can get to and I look forward to the conversation with all of you at the appropriate time in 2025 thank you thank you Mrs Andrews and thank you Mr Ferguson for bringing both of those two discussion items up they're just really so needed and and the workshop is going to be uh critical I just want to be on record uh for a little bit of district 6 the three Mayors in the uh Glades area had asked for Melody detectives way before we got them here uh and mayor Wilson uh bab and uh Kyle knew that we had some real issues out west with gangs and shootings and we lost a little Elementary uh kid just a few years ago from go and we know we've got pockets of gangs uh hanging around in our communities and hanging around in areas near our schools and I really would like to see metal detectives at every level but while we're trying to figure out how much money and discussing it I don't know Mr Burke after listening here from to Mr Ferguson is there a way way that when we know that we have a critical area Chief uh where we've got some serious gang activity with people with guns running around in the street near our schools that we can get a plan of action where we can put some extra security I.E maybe the the handheld metal detectors uh on call based on what the need is for that particular region uh just looking at Crossroads academy uh and Mr Burke you went out to the Glades just recently and the people told me there's heavy gang activity right there in that area where our alternative school is plus we've got all these other schools in the location so I really want us to try to come up with the money and workshop and workshop but we know where kids have guns uh and doing bad things within Palm Beach County Schools areas and so when we know there's been a shooting or something that's that's a major danger to some of the children within these areas maybe we can come up with a system where we can you know work with the parents work with the um with the uh local law enforcement as well as the elected officials and kind of come together in the Glades region they have a Safety Committee and that was one of the things they talked about long time ago was the metal detectors so I'm happy that we have them and we have all of these different Tools in place to keep us safe but sometimes right on the Cuffs of it you've got some shooting and some people getting shot and killed some of our students and we know where these gangs are so I don't know if we can come up with some kind of formula when we see high activity that we can actually put something together within that area to talk to the parents help the schools until we can get the metal detectors that we truly want but we've got to keep the people safe and we've got to let the community know as well as the schools know we recognize that there's some gang activity and some um bad business going on with uh people that don't care about our children and they'll shoot people just because they want to kill them or hurt them and and so we know that's going out within our community so I don't know how we get there to get a metal detector in all of our schools but while we're looking at what we have to live with every day I would love for us to get some action plans thank you Mr Burke yes well first few thoughts there uh all the alternative schools were the first to get M sectors before we went down this path of adding them to all our high schools so that's in place uh just for the record for the for the audience also the the young student we lost in the go tragedy was not on our campus it was in front of our own home as a result of a driveby shooting that was Gang Related um Chief money and her team do an excellent job of working with the Sheriff's Office and also the other Municipal agencies across Palm Beach County to share information to track activity uh we routinely deploy more officers to campuses where we're concerned that maybe tensions are rising um but I just want to make that clear like metal detectors at go elementary would not have saved that young lady um and you know we again we are fortunate to have Chief Mooney and her team we've strengthen those relationships we include the local enfor law enforcement agencies in our drills we share our building blueprints uh we share access to our campuses with ID badges and the card swipes so that they you know we have access to our keys so that we can respond to emergency so we are doing a lot and uh you know again I guess I'm happy to bring back some options for the board if you want to make a further investment in Mel detectors and just know there may be competing options maybe even in the same realm of school safety that you might want to consider um to see what you know again it's it's a layered approach no one single layer is foolproof we'll never have the comfort of knowing we're 100% safe so I think we just have to again look at the best use of our resources to make kids as safe as possible and if it's metal detectors and that's what the board's committed to at all levels then we need to just we'll have to see what that would take to implement and we'll we'll leave it to you uh I believe we could address that through the budget process Mrs Whitfield thank you um very interested to see uh this uh Workshop later I think that would be it would be good for us to have a more robust discussion with data also I'd love to hear from some principles about what their thoughts are on the middle school and Elementary level um my my biggest caution um during this discussion would just be that I don't want schools to be designated as metal detector schools or non-metal detector schools I don't want that to be a split that people see I think if we're going to do middle schools we do all the middle schools and if we don't we don't because I I think it could be a perception issue in our community about which school do you go to and what and I don't want any children to be judged or any schools to be judged based on that so I think we have to be very cognizant of the brand that we're putting forward and if it's safe for one it's safe for all so that's something I think we should really consider when we're we're when we're going forward but I hope that we'll have this in a more um robust discussion with with all of our data and some information from some principles about what they would like to see and you know if they feel that this is effective I have one of those schools um where the metal detectors are in but the population is so small that it is very difficult to staff and every time I go and speak to them I am coming back to Mr Burke and asking if we can have more staff because they have a very difficult time making sure that there's enough staff members to be at the metal detectors so I think the full expans of the cost needs to be considered and there's a lot of things that I think this District also needs um to make sure that we're providing the best education possible so I think we're going to have to lay all those out to make sure that we're making the appropriate decisions so I think let's have this discussion when we have time for for staff to come back with some good information thank you and so before I call on anyone else I'm just going to weigh in I agree with Mrs Whitfield on talking to the principles but I also think that um we'll need legal to weigh in we know that there you know in an executive session we can talk about the layered approach and the outstanding projects um things that we're doing right now I think it'd be more comfortable talking about what we are doing and what is on the radar later rather than in an open session so we'll let the general counsil meet with the superintendent see if it's appropriate for an executive session and we we can incorporate the metal detectors in that conversation but I don't think that um sitting in an open workshop and talking about our plans for security is really what I feel comfortable with um Mrs Andrews this will be the last time and through the through the chair to the superintendent there is a Safety Committee out in the Glades region where the sheriff is at the table school police is at the table uh the elected officials are at the table I recognize what happened with the child from go I'm on the I'm on the ground out there for sure it's an area where you got people shooting and it's usually in the community this is why the elected officials have asked for the specific help and we can talk all we want to up here I think we have to go out there where the action is and I know that you're out there uh Chief Mooney and the police school police is out there but there's some areas that are a little bit more difficult than others and so I'm asking us to call the Safety Committee together for the Glades region which has been an existent since I've been on this board and they haven't met in a while and now that we're talking and they had asked for metal detectives way before we got them the Mayors did so I'm really serious about this because I just know a lot of young people have been killed in The Glades area and maybe it wasn't on our campus but they went to our schools and for some reason they were suspended or they got in trouble or they didn't go to school anymore and they were placed at Crossroads all kinds of issues happened to them and they are not with us today and it's a real serious issue so I know that we've done a good job with trying to keep our schools safe but there's still a lot more work to do a lot of mental health work that needs to be done when you talk about these uh this data with the suspension so when we send them out and they don't make it on the school grounds things happen on the outside which actually impacts things that happen within the school Center so I would love to have the Safety Committee meet with uh Mr Burke and the team to talk talk about it school police is there uh major Moore is a member of that committee and so we need to kind of hear from the public too because they have some responsibility as it relates to the parents when we start talking suspensions and everything else the parents have to weigh in and help us that's where the elected officials and the community comes in thank you Mr Ferguson Madam chair I'd like to ask a question to board member Whitfield if that's okay just wanted to get get some additional information board member wh for which high school are you referring to uh is it dfus it is okay all right and then as far as did you say we should speak with the principls at the middle school level or the high school level I was thinking middle school and elementary school to see if this is a need that they feel that they have and if we could be of service by providing this to them okay so that that's fine U we can we can hash this out of the workshop thank you for that okay we're going to close out with Miss Branch also remember also remember that some of our Middle School is actually k through eight and and watching the kids because I subbed at ASM Miser in Blue Lake they're they're coming in like you'd have to have like 10 metal detectors there um but security is ongoing we're having a workshop so that's all I have okay thank you so I will now entertain a motion to adjourn everybody Mo motion by vice vice chair Andrew second by Miss Branch any discussion I don't think so all in favor all opposed motion carries unanimously every body have a happy holiday sorry we kept you a little bit later tonight e e