e e e good morning I call this meeting of the pelis County School Board April 23rd 2024 to order we will begin with an invocation led by Pastor Don Pratt of St Paul United Methodist Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice chair Carol cook and the national anthem performed by the Largo High School magical under the direction of Mr Gabriel aari please stand and remain standing until the conclusion of the national anthem Pastor Pratt good morning good morning thank you dear God we thank you that you love us and we thank you for this beautiful day uh this day itself is a gift so in gratitude help us use this gift wisely I pray this morning for this meeting I pray that you will give to all of those present wisdom Insight patience and concern for others I pray that all that is done and every decision made will further our goal of a quality education in a safe environment for our children thank you that we get to spend this day in meaningful and important work and we trust you to help us to do right by those who have put their trust in US amened states andice e [Music] [Music] light what so proud We [Music] the and bright through the fight or the r parts we watch were so G streaming the [Music] rocket Pro through the night flag starle [Music] for the land of the [Music] free the our next piece is Ein Henline Vice a traditional German Madrigal with two verses the first one in German and the second one in English and in the middle of it you might start hearing our little friend the chicken that she wants to be part of this song as well we hope you guys enjoy Ein Henline Vice [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] l [Music] [Music] [Music] white a small white with ro go searching for food [Music] Roar [Music] noway us all a little c a little cake spicy cakes and C sweet together allink [Music] [Laughter] [Music] wonderful thank you so much Mr aari nice to see you and the magicals here today thank you we will now share a video of middle and high school students exploring stem activities at mcdill Air Force Base today we're out here at mcdel Air Force Base we're doing a science technology engineering and math or a stem event we hosted about 2,300 students from the Hillsboro and pelis County but as an added bonus we allowed them to go out and see our Airfield seeing our different static displays our different aircrafts our KC 135s and even got to see the Thunderbirds practice we're hoping that we can Inspire them to go into to stem career Fields but we're also hoping to inspire them to go into Aviation career Fields as well I really like seeing the planes like fly over our heads they're moving so quickly it's like the skill it takes to be able to Pilot like that just think that's incredible for some this is the first time they've seen military planes or get to go inside of them or meet pilots and the crew that takes care of them it's not just about flying it's about maintaining the resources to make sure that they all all good to go up in the air I think it's great I like to see all the things inside the cockpit and it was like really cool cuz like I got to see the speedometer and stuff I think it's uh really good cuz there's a lot of planes that I get to see and then there's the wings there's some helicopters over there so you can see I think this helicopter is pretty cool as big as someone interest in robotics just look at all the sensors on these things it's pretty remarkable just seeing all this technology our school Palm Harbor University High School our robotics Club is out here demonstrating some of our robots we have teams from all over the county here demonstrating robots and what we do as robotics clubs for youth across the Tampa Bay area it was really cool it felt like we were going to the future with the dog maybe um it was really awesome I loved it how they gave me a high five it was really awesome today was honestly fun and I'm glad I could be here and enjoy and experience what it's like to be in the military I mean this is all about science technology engineering and Mathematics and so this is obviously really important because in America I think we have a a real big shortage of those individuals so we're trying to get kids in here get them excited about these really critical fields for America to be honest I like that everything here it's really new to me and I'm glad that I got to learn new things today it inspires me to learn that everything is possible well I certainly love that thank you to whoever put that trip together for those students that is leading with student experience for sure now I wear this pin on my lapel because I have jumped out of military airplanes and helicopters I don't recommend that I do recommend designing them and flying them though so I hope any of our students who are interested in that certainly follow that career path that was awesome what a great what a great uh time um so next is Introduction of professional and Community organization Representatives Isabelle mascarenes our public information officer good morning Madame chair members of the board Mr Hendrick and staff it is my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and professional organizations from the penila classroom Teachers Association Lee Bryant president representing the north panila League of Women Voters Debbie andreen from the penila arts for a complete education Coalition Olivia young members of the media and attendance from the Tampa Bay Times Jeff solich today we have a presentation from the student rights and responsibility committee please welcome students Brody fton and anley Johnson from Largo high school and their principal Jennifer ston greetings Madam chair member of the board superintendent Hedrick and staff members my name is Angley Johnson I'm a senior at Largo High School a part of the Excel program after graduation I plan on attending the University of South Florida to pursue a career in Biochemistry throughout my years attending Largo High School I've been given the privilege to be president of my magnet program a member of the National Honor thespian Society captain of the first ever girls lacrosse team and be part of many clubs such as Treasure of Junior council member of History Bowl where I had the privilege to travel to Washington DC to compete at the national level twice and historian of the theater Club who has helped shape me into who I am today I owe it all to my amazing teachers and wonderful staff who have only set me up for success and supported me every step of the way I am truly excited and ready for the next chapter of my life now I would like to call my classmate and friend Brody to introduce himself hello my name is Brody fton I'm in the 12th grade and I go to Largo High School in the Excel program after graduation I plan on attending Florida State University in the summer for nursing throughout my four years at here at Largo High School I became the president of the Japanese friendship club and a member of nine other clubs I've also ran in track in cross country and I'm proud to say I'm in the top 15% of my class Largo high is unique in its focus on developing Learners and leaders through academic and career exploration during High School our two magnets International balora and Excel explore this Mission ni IB student take on a global approach to learning and are exposed to the most rigorous curriculum students that are success that successfully complete all four years of IB and graduate with an IB diploma automatically earn the Florida bright future scholarship in our Excel magnet students get the opportunity to hone their leadership skills research different careers each semester and then go Shadow a Community member in that career they then share the experience with other students students in the Excel are also part of our AVID program speaking of avid we are also excited to share that Largo high school was just designated as an avid schoolwide site of Distinction this means that we represent the highest level of avid implementation Fidelity demonstrating excellence in instruction and college readiness schoolwide not just for our elective students another Way Largo supports career exploration for all students is the many different certifications options on campus Packers are able to earn certificate in welding and we have an 18 Bay Welding Shop auto repair shop and our full auto shop CDA license and our working preschool many business certifications in our marketing program Serve Safe in culinary and CAD in our drafting courses to say Largo is a place everywhere can sorry to say Largo is a place where everyone can find something is an understatement our art program gives students the opportunity to explore 3D and 2D art photography learn the guitar or keyboarding or Express Yourself on the stage in our theater Department our art students have Rec have received recognition all over the state including dozens of awards at state level competitions Angley how far did we come in competitions this year as a member of History Bowl I'm excited to share that we will be traveling to Washington DC for the third year in the road as we've made it to Nationals our academic Bowl team has also made it to finals again this year I wouldn't challenge a packer to a trivia contest if I were you our science olympiads placed in regionals and did model you in our sports teams continue to shine this year as well we have a ninth grader finish eighth in state for bowling and another ninth grader make it all the way to States in swimming the future of Largo Sports is bright our football team continue to stand out with a win at districts a solid run at States making it to Regional semifinals both soccer teams made it to District finals our baseball team currently is in the middle of a winning season that has our record better than it has been since 1991 we look forward to seeing the success continue we canot mention Largo Sports without also mentioning our track team Our Girls Relay Team has been such a standout they were invited to attend the national indoor track meet in New York last month where they made a strong showing coming and fourth in their first ever appearance Largo focus on giving all students the best opportunity means not just our academic or sports teams that these kids kinds of experience our students have had over 25 field trip opportunities this year to see places like the Ringley Museum in in Sarasota full sale art show biod day abush gardens College Shores such as FGCU Daytona Beach for Color Guard a visit to Disney where they were able to record original music in a full Studio USF engineering day and many more as you can see school spirit is alive and well at Largo High our Learners and leaders understand the responsibility of positively representing our school and taking advantage of every opportunity to explore our interests thank you for allowing us the privilege of sharing just a fraction of these opportunities with you all today thank you thank you anley and Brody Miss Dayton nice to see you and always good to see the magicals as well Laro high is well represented today amendments to the agenda Mr Hendrick are there any amendments to the agenda Madam chair there was one Amendment to the agenda item 7.6 was removed last week and and all the other numbers were moved up one and so the agenda that's been in there since the weekend is accurate thank you board members any amendments to the agenda okay uh motion to adopt the agenda as posted it was posted it was amended it was posted is it still as amended no I just for the record if you can find good cause for the amendment to the agend happy to is is board chair see good cause to amend the agenda described by Mr hendrik all those in favor say I I any opposed second there's no vote on it's the chair just finds good cause to amend it no vote is necessary I apologize for confusing it but you found good cause now I think that you're ready for a motion to entertain the adoption of the agenda as amended thank you may have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended motion and a second motion by Miss Meyer and a second by Mrs cook and now we vote all those in favor say I I any opposed thank you special order agenda item 4.1 presentation of the Proclamation celebrating the work of penis County Schools teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week May 6 to 10 2024 may I have a motion to approve this Proclamation a motion second a motion from Mrs long and a second from Mrs Caine Mr Hendrick would you like to introduce this item yes thank you madam chair of course all across the United States we celebrate teacher appreciation week normally the first week of May and so it seems a little odd being April 23rd but we don't have another board meeting till May 14th and as it turns out May that first week of May is a little late this year so we're excited to bring this today although it'll be another week or two before we start our full celebrations of our teachers although we try to celebrate each and every day so miss Texel our chief human resource officer we'll talk more about our plans for this year thank you good morning Madam chair school board members Mr Hendrick and staff I am truly honored to be here this morning to acknowledge all of the wonderful teachers that we do have in penis County Schools as we look forward as mentioned to celebrating uh teacher appreciation week will be held May 6th through 10th with May 7th being teacher appreciation day as you know our teachers continuously go above and beyond each and every day to support our students in all of the academic activities that we just heard about from Largo High School wonderful examples of the work that our children and our teachers are doing every every day it is really an honor to see how successful our students are in all of those events and it is only because of the dedication of our teachers that they're able to do that um they're excelling because of the support of our teachers the support of our administrators our communities and our parents and our families so once again this year our administrators parents and students are providing many ways to say thank you to the teachers during May 6th through 10th we appreciate the communities the businesses um that reach out and support our teachers I do know there are a lot of special treats going on that week a lot of freebies I heard one the other day on the radio um and I and we really do appreciate the support of our teachers the district will also be providing a way to recognize and thank a teacher through our various social media platforms that week and that information will be going out as well because we know as our simplest way to thank a teacher is simply to say thank you and it's truly appreciated so today we do have a proclamation recognizing the upcoming teacher appreciation week and we appreciate that thank you Mrs Kane would you like to read the proclamation sure Proclamation for Teacher Appreciation Week whereas teachers open children's Minds to the magic of ideas knowledge and dreams where teachers keep American democracy Alive by laying the foundation for good citizenship and where teachers fill many roles as listeners explorers Role Models motivators and mentors whereas great teachers make great public schools and whereas teachers continue to influence us as long as our school days are only memories now therefore the school board of pelis County does hereby proclaim the week of May 6th through the 10th 2024 as teacher appreciation week and Tuesday May 7th 2024 as panel M County Schools teacher appreciation day we urge that all observe this week by taking the time to recognize and acknowledge the impact teachers have on all of our Lives signed the 23rd day of April 2024 thank you um so I know in a lot of schools the ptas are very active during teacher appreciation week and they do a great deal of work from you know breakfast to gifts to decorating doors um cards so so many things but also our businesses and our community organizations you can support a school so if you know somebody who has a business who has an active rotary or church or any other kind of organization ask them what their local school is and this is a great place for them to call their local school and say we would like to support you during teacher teacher appreciation week I promise you it is it is definitely appreciated and we also have some schools that have really active ptas and some that don't so find those schools that don't and support them the best you can we really appreciate it all those in favor of approving item 4.1 the proclamation celebrating the work of P County Schools teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week say I I any opposed motion passes 7 to zero item five public comment on agenda items Mrs Hal do do we have any speakers to agenda items today no Madam chair there are no speakers for agenda items thank you we don't have any unfinished business on item six item seven the consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion motion by Mrs long second by Mrs Meyer all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I any opposed passes 7 to zero item 8.1 on the non-consent agenda setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertisement of the public hearing to consider the amendment to policy 5420 do3 reporting student progress and class ranking High School this is the first reading may I have a motion to approve 8.1 motion motion by Mrs long and a second by Mrs Edmund Mr Hendrick would you introduce this item thank you madam chair I'd like to call lyanna E our director strategic planning and policy to walk the board through uh this discussion and talk about the workshop and upcoming opportunities for public input Miss Ison good morning Madame chair board members superintendent Hendrick staff and community in item 8.1 we're proposing amendments to policy 542.335 code of conduct and was informed by feedback from principals District staff and the student rights and responsibilities committee we reviewed these in-depth during the march Schoolboard Workshop the Amendments include three clarifications we've added Cambridge Ace exam as an acceptable exam in lie of teacher developed exams we've clarified the language describing the second quarter of each semester we've brought in language regarding state required exams and removed the specific titles of those exams and the substantive amendments are in section 5e and those include clarifying that if a student has five or more absences they will be required to take the exam for the courses in which they have those absences adding a grade of C to qualify for exam exemption and allowing students to exempt the exam in both semesters of a year-long course we recommend setting a public hearing on these amendments for June 11th 202 for thank you any comments seeing none we'll take a vote all those in favor of approving item 8.1 say I any opposed passes 7 to zero item 8.2 setting a public hearing and authorizing the advertisement of the public hearing to consider the amendment to policies 5500. 7 code of student conduct discipline 55.8 code of student conduct misconduct that requires specific consequences and 55 17.01 policy against bullying and harassment this is the first reading may I have a motion to approve item 8.2 motion from Miss Peters and a second from Mrs Kane Mr Hendrick would you introduce this item yes thank you madam chair again I'm going to call on Lanna Eisen our director of strategic plan and policy to explain these three that come together as part of the code of student conduct as well as bullying and harassment and also Dr Dwayne Hines the area superintendent who helped to present this at the workshop is available in case there's any questions Mrs Eon item 8.2 proposes amendments to the code code of student conduct policies annually these code of conduct is reviewed in its entirety by multiple stakeholder groups those groups consist of District staff school-based staff and principles student rights and responsibilities parents and the pelis classroom Teachers Association stakeholders also always have the opportunity to provide feedback on the code of student conduct or any other board policies through our let's talk and conduct button on our website additionally this year we included a campaign for stakeholders to provide online input specifically related to the use of cell phones and other Wireless communication devices the annual review of these policies looks for alignment with legislation evidence-based best practices as well as District practices as a result of this year's review including workshops at um Schoolboard discussions at the workshops in March and April we're proposing amendments to three of the code of conduct policies I'll review those in numerical order first is policy 55007 code of student conduct discipline there are technical changes throughout this policy mostly reflecting the state's threat management terminology most of the substantive amendments to this policy are in section three cell phones and other Wireless Communications devices the Amendments include updated terminology and definitions for new terms specified acceptable use and storage of cell phones and wireless devices including earbuds and headphones for students at each of the elementary middle and high school levels outlined permissible exceptions to the grade level parameters we've moved and added um to the clearly identified authorized use of devices unauthorized use of devices and we've rewarded responsibility and liability portions and made it a standalone section of the policy in policy 55008 code of student conduct misconduct that requires specific consequences again there are technical changes throughout again mostly related to the state's threat management language and references to our own educational alternative services in section one tobacco nicotine and vaping we've clarified the opening paragraph of that section section two illegal drugs alcoholic beverages harmful and other substances was up updated to reflect new legislation regarding over-the-counter medications and the consequences were updated to reflect the violation of this SE section may result in reassignment the last substantive amendment to this policy is in section four dangerous objects which clearly states that no student shall possess handle or transport dangerous objects on Schoolboard property or to school sponsored activities in policy 551 17.01 the policy against bullying and harassment this policy Amendment updates the references to systems used for documentation and external programs available for training this is a technical edit the primary amendments to this policy are in Section 8 and section 13 and which the language was clarified to articulate that parents of victimized students will be notified regardless of the severity of the incident and the last SE and the last section with amendment is section 11 referral of the victimized perpetrator of bullying and harassment for counseling and we've added that the procedure includes parental notification as needed and required by law with that we recommend setting the public hearing for this set of policies also on June 23 11th June 11th 2024 thank you I see a couple of comments here Mrs Edmund thank you very much for bringing these items for would you please share for policy 55 100.7 would you please share with the public what the roll out of the policy will include as well as how violations of this policy will be handled within schools so on 55 5500. s when we think about actually let me say this with all the policy changes directly to this related to the student code of conduct the plan is that once it's approved by the school board um in June we will be working throughout the summer to educate our administrators um providing a presentation that our administrators will use to share with their teachers during preschool week and in turn they will develop it we will also be de developing resources that during the first week of school normally we have like 10 days of school where you're going over processes and procedures teaching expectations the plan is that that information will be also shared with students at that time needless to say beyond that obviously with all the uh media coverage about this particular topic um we will also be working with our communication strategic communication Department to also share information as we prepare for the start of the school year so families and students are aware of the changes to policies but that's our standard practice and we did um make note that one of the requests from the board when we did the workshops in March was to bring back to the board later in December summer the specific plans in terms of what things will look like as we continue to PR prepare for the next school year in addition to that the second part of the question regarding consequences for violation of policy 55007 um we did talk about um providing schools with guidance around what should happen on the first violation second violation third violation and as your reminder to the general Republic as well as to the board when we did the survey we did include questions on the survey that gave us some information about what are some reasonable consequences for violation of the specific policy toward related to cell phones and so those the things that we'll also be sharing with our administrators as it relates to best practices to better support them as they roll this out in their schools thank you very much Dr Hines I think it's very important that although we've had numerous workshops and the ability to dialogue with you and the public about this that the public is aware of what next steps are um so again thank you for this information in public you are welcome to provide feedback on these policies thank you thank you Mrs cook each year as you go over the code of conduct you involve students rights and responsibilities as well as administrators and everyone else throughout the district but with this policy for the cell phones you went above and beyond and went out into the community and shared that um information with us so I appreciate the process that you went through in order to do this because cell phones everybody has an opinion and we were able to listen to everybody's opinion and come up with the policy that best suited their needs so I appreciate all the time and effort for the whole code conduct or not the whole code of conduct this year but all of the things that you looked at in the code of conduct as well as the things that you brought forward for the cell phone policy so thank you very much both thank you any other comments then we'll take a vote so all those in favor of approving item 8.2 say I I any opposed passes 7 to zero new business Mr hendrik do you have any items to share with us today I do thank you madam chair first I wanted to start out with a congratulations to the penis County Schools academic team which won second place at the Commissioners academic challenge that took place at Universal Studios uh last weekend the team finished in second place in division one which is the largest uh school districts in the state and included uh as we heard from our students at Largo high school earlier questions in Math Science Social Studies language arts health and technology and I wanted to especially congratulate the All-Star team that was selected to represent penel County schools and those were students from St Petersburg High School Milan shim hang um hwin and Santiago Suarez from East Lake High School Max D Jonah Roth and Zack Phillip and from country Side High School Katherine Miller and one more from Holland High School James machowski they were chosen by the academic coaches in the whole District to represent penel County schools and I want to thank the two coaches Jeff from St Petersburg High School and Jacob kosi from Hollands high school for representing our district so well I'd like to congratulate students from Palm Harbor University High School who won both first and third place at the next gen Tech 360 finals last weekend it is a competition on next Generation Technologies where students develop a business plan and in incl multiple counties from across Tampa Bay and we're excited to bring the championship back home to pelis County the students from Palm Harbor who won first will present to Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank this week their idea and see if they can gain funding for their plan we have lots of events scheduled coming up and some that we just did we had our pride Awards our academic awards for elementary middle school students and honored 470 students last week we also had last week our honors breakfast recognizing our National Merit semi-finalist and college board winner over 50 students there we have several events in the next couple weeks including tonight Walker's Rising Stars the big performing artart showcase that'll be at mafy theater our board recognition Awards which are next Wednesday evening where we honor all of our district Regional State and sometimes National winners across a whole host of things academic athletic extracurricular we're excited for that and our turnaround achievement awards are also next week as well tomorrow night I want to invite the public to the Journeys in journalism gas plant reporting project event that is happening at SPC Midtown it's Wednesday night 6: to 8 the students in our Journeys and journalism pathway from Melrose Elementary to John Hopkins Middle Lakewood High School have been working for about five months chronicling the history of the gas plant area in St Petersburg its transformation and the future of the area the students have produced documentaries podcasts Maps drawings and they're excited to share that tomorrow night I want to thank the pointer Institute the Florida Humanities Council and St Petersburg College for for their partnership in that effort and almost any given week in the year you can find Visual Arts exhibitions across our County and different museums and this week and last week are no exception the main sale Arts Festival happened at monoy Park last weekend with 220 students from kindergarten through 12th grade whose work were recognized and celebrated at the festival and over the next two weeks at two different locations the taking shape Middle School Exhibition at the dunan Fine Arts Center and the state of Digital Arts exhibition which is K8 at the leapa Ratner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs will feature student artwork and also if you've been walking around this building you'll see new works of art coming in as we take out this year's uh students and put in next year's artwork for the District administration building and I want to thank penel County School's referendum for continuing to make these exhibitions possible for our students and it's only a few weeks away from graduations May 16th start our graduations the public can see our full graduation schedule meet our valedictorians and salutatorian and find their plans for college on our district website and much more about graduation and finally as we do at every meeting I'd like to honor one of our employees for recognizing our core values who was celebrated by another District employee and this week it is or this meeting it is Sandra spinato a third grade teacher at Leela Davis Elementary School she's worked for penel County schools for 28 years and uh Miss Sonata is recognized as an innovator in her classroom always willing to try something new if it will engage her students and help them learn one of her colleagues said she's one of my favorite teachers to collaborate with and I'm so thankful for her time and ideas as we piloted a new Dash robotics lesson for our math and science students thank you Miss spinata and all of our teachers for the work they do each and every day thank you items introduced by the school board attorney I have no items today thank you thank you items introduced by the board wow review of board requests my Heavens okay well with that and seeing no other business I'll adjourn this meeting and we'll move to public participation Mrs Hal do we have any speakers today yes Madam chair there are five speakers this morning thank you um so we're moving into into the public comment portion of the of of the meeting please note that the views and comments of the public speakers are their own and they're not endorsed nor sponsored by the school board or the district we cannot ensure the accuracy of statements made but will review concerns that are raised and take appropriate action which may include clarifications or the referral of speakers to the proper staff member for assistance the board is committed to a standard of Civility in deorum and conducting our meetings this includes refraining from clapping or making audible noises during after a speaker's comments we appreciate you in assisting Us in maintaining a civil and construction environment please note that although board members or superintendent Hendrick may leave the dis briefly there are speakers in the back room and we will continue to be able to hear your comments thank you so thank you madam chair the first two speakers are Aunt Aila and Tim Conroy good morning um Madam chair superintendent board thank you so much my name is Aunt Aila I use the them pronouns and I am the Tampa Bay Community organizer for equality Florida uh I'm here to share um both my gratitude and um some areas where I think um we can work together as we have in the past so our schools should protect all students and respect all families so they can learn and thrive in a safe environment this district has shown a commitment to this despite the attacks on students teachers and families of color and those in the lgbtq community these are all coordinated um efforts to undermine basic civil liberties and assert government control over our families in every aspect of Our Lives including through government censorship of books and classroom material State sanctioned Erasure of lgbtq families and students and families of color from schools policies to propagandize history and censor honest conversations about the history of racism and Injustice in our country and attacks on Educators that are fighting for the best the best for students and schools students deserve to be able to read books that reflect their own Identity or the identities of their friends Neighbors and family members books band Book bands are aimed at erasing and stigmatizing various communities identities families and histories so I'm calling on this District to do more to to bring proqual or Pro equality of course but Pro literacy policies so that parents and families can bring books back um there are many policies that have been set in place to ban books and to review books and we would like to see this District um bring about policies work with us to bring about policies so the parents and families can um bring books into schools that reflect um identities and histories that have been under attack so thank you so much for your time thank you school board members superintendent Hendrick and District staff for allowing me to speak to you my name is Tim Conroy and I'm a proud member of indivisible North pelis a nonpartisan organization that supports public education yesterday was the official Earth Day we celebrated Earth Sunday at my church Faith UCC across from Z High School by reading and adopting a new green Covenant as you know we have a single landfill in pellis county and is rapidly filling up once it does we don't have the land available for a new one we will need to start Trucking our garbage away and the price will be incredibly expensive for residents businesses and schools there is no choice pellis County Schools cannot ignore this problem so let's have one more Proclamation today that pelis County Schools will take seriously their role of being good stewards of Mother Earth through programs that reduce single use plastic by reinstituting recycling programs looking into a cost share agreement with the county by reducing energy usage and I know you try to do this in the district's carbon footprint by planting more trees and Gardens and composting and by living more thoughtfully to create a more healthy fair and just environment for our students and communities today I thank teachers for their expertise compassion and the thousands of decisions made each day to keep students engaged and motivated I also thank those teachers I know who take their recycling home from school because the district doesn't recycle one way to honor today and future teachers and students is to implement district-wide strategies that promote faithful stewardship that protect the Beauty and health of waterways and Mother Earth pelis County Schools must set this example and lead us into the future thank you the next speaker is Mr Lee Bryant good morning chair hind members of the board superintendent hendrik and staff my name is Lee Bryant my pronouns are he him and his as president of the pcta I have the privilege and obligation of understanding what our members are doing so we can represent them to the best of our ability we recently sent an online survey to our members that included along with other questions do you work outside your contract hours on school related activities along with some follow-up questions after hearing back from hundreds of our members I noticed a general Trend that to be honest did not surprise me much uh as of the writing of this penel County Schools employs 6,387 Educators in the classroom bargaining teacher unit I have no way of surveying employees that are not part of pcta uh but I can't believe the numbers would change very much of the respondents to our survey 93% say they work outside the contract day an average of 10 hours a week if we multiply that out then on average during the contract year teachers work 418 hours a year for free with the average hourly rate times the number of hours worked that equals 9,260 of free work per year per teacher uh now if we take that to its fullest that works out to 1886 m883 620 of free work provided voluntarily by the teachers of pelis County Schools but this is not a penell schools problem this is a Florida school's problem Florida teachers are dedicated diligent and extremely capable Educators that are not being fairly compensated by the leaders of Florida in penis County the voters showed their support of educ s by passing the property tax referendum year after year after year poll after poll show that the people of Florida want their teachers paid and fairly compensated yet Florida continues to keep its teachers at the bottom of the national pay scale tens of billions of dollars of surpluses year after year after year and the teachers are not feeling the admiration that the People Express when they see us in public seen in a classroom recently was a sign that told the students we are not here to be average we are here to be awesome that is the attitude our teachers bring to our students it is pastime for the Florida government to treat our Educators with the dignity and respect they've earned our educators are not here to be average our educators are here to be awesome it is time that the State of Florida pays them as such thank you the next two speakers are Toby Piper and Christine Piper first you hi good morning my name is Christine Piper this is my son Toby Piper he's 11 years old and he attends Pasadena fundamental um he is going to read a story for you guys but he actually had an event on the 16th in which a child Beed uh he um showed him a a gun basically at school until they proved it wrong we considered it a weapon a gun um when he was there they discounted what he said basically the principal was called um the two kids were pulled outside together and a backpack was searched prior to them searching this backpack he the child was able to go to the bathroom and hide this weapon in a ceiling uh after that when they found the gun that was not in his backpack everything was discounted this child was allowed to roam the hallways of the school for two days putting every single child teacher and person that was on that campus at risk every single kid for two days was subjected to possibly having that child the that child go obtain that gun and shoot them my child actually was made to feel like he was a liar he came home crying sitting on the toilet crying because he was not not actually going to the bathroom by the way but sitting on the toilet crying because he was scared and he was embarrassed because he felt like he was a liar the thing is is that since then nothing that has been said about it has been nothing but diminishing the incident has been called a toy weapon the the the letter that was sent out by the principal was made to seem it occurred over a period of like 15 minutes not 48 Hours um the blame I sent I sent emails to the superintendent who he sent it over to our the other the other superintendent but it the blame was placed over to the Art Club the art Club was not responsible for having a weapon like that on campus for 48 hours that was the principal's U um um responsibility what I have been trying to explain is is that it is not a principal's responsibility to determine the safety of our children it is law enforcement's responsibility when they figured out that there was a kid that came and approached them and said that there was a gun on campus that they saw it they should have taken that as enough information to call law enforcement to come to that campus and secure that campus and to secure the safety of every every single person on that on that campus including my child that reported it but was made to feel like he was a liar they did not but but the thing is though is it's left up to the principles to determine what is safe and what is not safe but they did not sit there and and realize that timelines could be off so they looked at the tapes they were off on the tapes so it took them two days to figure out that they were off on their timeline and if they would have looked at the Timeline like a police officer would because they know timelines will be off they would have gone from the beginning of the day starting and have looked the entire time the entire timeline until the kids started at school and until they reported it and they also would have known the first place to look in and is a ceiling it is not their responsibility to actually look to actually protect you can good morning my name is Toby I'm 11 year old old I'm speak up and slow down I'm a fifth grader at pasadia elementary while I was at our club a kid wanted to show me something in his backpack and I said yes he pulled out he pulled it out really quickly and um I asked him to pull it out slowly again and what I saw was a gun which made me really scared because it looks real I got up and asked his friends if he said anything about it beforeand which the kid told him that he was going to bring a gun to school but he thought he was joking I went up to the staff of our club and then told them Miss Moody came down and had the other kid come outside together the looked they looked inside of his backpack but they didn't find anything stop touching me he was allowed to go to the bathroom before they searched his stuff they made um they made me here oh they made me answer questions over and over again and it seemed like they didn't believe believe me since the other kid was still in AR club and at the school it was like I was lying my parents weren't even called until after school a few days they were found they found the gun in the bathroom where the kid hit it a few days later we found our science fair and Miss Moody didn't even stop at my project I saw I saw her stop at everyone else's project but mine um they treated me like a liar thank you for listening to me thank you yes Dr Hines and chief Williams if if you will speak with Miss feifer thank you madam chair we have no more speakers thank you this concludes our meeting for today thank you for being here