e e e good morning I call this meeting of the pellis County school board on June 25th 2024 to order we will begin with an invocation led by Reverend Sam bard of missio day Community followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice chair Carol cook and the national anthem please stand and remain standing until the completion of the national anthem Reverend pricard good morning good morning thank you chair Hine thanks for the invitation School Board member Edmond and thank you all for being here today I bring you greetings for missio day in the city of St Petersburg and I thank you all for your commitment to service on behalf of all of our faith communities please join me in prayer gracious God you tell us that you are love so today let us start and end with love in all that we do thank you for the commitment and dedication of all of the people in this room to your children to your community we pray that you would guide this meeting and guide each of us with your spirit of Grace and Care especially for those in most need of care we pray that we would care for the vulnerable that we would make wise decisions to use Community Resources well to educate our children that we would support our teachers and Frontline staff and that the whole Community would come together for the well-being of our children our families and our community we pray this trusting in your love amen to the flag of the United States of America for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all [Music] theight and through [Music] the SP for [Music] theing the [Applause] rock through flag still there oh [Music] s for the of [Music] the and please be seated I want to clap to that also that that's our choir of faculty and staff and just really remarkable Talent both in our students and in our faculty and staff I love that I love that we will now share a vid a a video celebrating our substitute teachers let's take a look congratulations and even better than congratulations thank you each and every day your commitment to our children in our schools is evident and so I wanted to say thank you for that I believe that it is really a wonderful event where you give the recognition to those um substitute teachers who go beyond and who are actually uh you know supportive in every way [Music] possible the best representing our sites across across the district filling over 72,000 absences and vacancies this year give yourself an answer bad because of you staff that were sick could get the rest they needed to recover and because of you staff could go to the Grand graduations of their own children and because of you students had someone in the classroom that cared about them and about making their learn and continue I just love teaching and I love being part of the the kids and the community and when they see me and they know me and they greet me with hugs and high fives and just watching them grow and and succeed well they come over they grab your legs and hug you that is so heartwarming when you see that and when you feel that warmth that they wish to share and they all want to learn and they just need the motivation and the recognition and the respect that they deserve so it's a great opportunity to interact with them we want to thank you for that the positive impact that you are making on our students and the future we are forever grateful and we just once again we want to thank you all so much for being [Applause] here that's really wonderful you know I have two neighbors who are substitute teachers and they absolutely absolutely love it and I love hearing their stories from inside the classroom and um schools um and if you want to be a substitute teacher I encourage you to do that please contact us don't forget you get your Summers off there's winter break Thanksgiving break spring break so we would love to have you be a substitute teacher in our schools it makes a difference adoption of the agenda Mr Hendrick are there any amendments to the agenda uh there are two amendments Madam chair that were posted last week for the public and the board one is item 7.41 request approval of the administrative appointment of the principal of Fugate Elementary School and 7.42 request approval of the administrative appointment for the principal at Sawgrass Lake Elementary School thank you thank you um are there any other amendments to the agenda board members no thank you as board chair I find good cause to amend the agenda as described by superintendent Hendrick may I have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended a motion motion from Mrs long and a second from Mrs cane all those in favor say I I any opposed passes 7 to zero I recognize that I passed introduction of our community organizations and representatives so we'll go back to that uh our public affairs officer Isabelle mascarinas good morning Madam chair members of the board Mr Hendrick and staff it is my pleasure to introduce the following representatives of community and professional organizations representing the penila educational support professionals Association Nelly henz president from the pilis classroom Teachers Association Jamie Beck representing the north pilis League of Women Voters GTO finny and Steven finny from the penila arts for a complete educ Coalition Maria cantonis members of the media in attendance from the Tampa Bay Times Jeff Sol thank you thank you item four special order agenda we don't have a special order agenda today so we'll go to item five public comments on agenda items Mrs Hal do we have any speakers no Madam chair there are no speakers for agenda items thank you we do not have any unfinished business today item seven our consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda move approval of the consent agenda motion from Mrs cook and a second from Mrs Meyer all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I any opposed passes 7 to zero onto our non-consent agenda today we'll start with item 8.1 request approval of the State of Florida voluntary pre kindergarten education program Statewide provider contract with the Early Learning Coalition of penis County May I have a motion to approve this item second motion from Mrs Edmund and a second from Mrs long Mr Hendrick would you please introduce this item thank you madam chair the expansion of our early literacy and early childhood programs has been a priority of the board uh for a number of years and as you see in this agenda item has increased our VPK seats from just a little over 300 in 2007 to now over 2500 today and so Jennifer meckler our director of early childhood education is here to talk about this agreement with the early Lear Learning Coalition and some details about our work in this space Miss meckler Madame chair members of the board Mr Hendrick and staff I'm pleased to be here today to seek your approval for our annual agreement between penell County schools and the Early Learning Coalition of penelas as you are aware this agreement is a recurring collaboration that allows us to offer voluntary pre kindergarten programs within our schools additionally it allows us to receive reimbursement from the Coalition for the enrolled students while the core of the agreement remains consistent with previous years the program requirements for lead VPK instructors focusing on early literacy will now offer or provide a 90-day grace period for new hires our early childhood Department Works continuously with VPK staff to ensure that they not only meet program requirements but also engage in professional learning related to early literacy often through one of the two micro credentials offered by the University of Florida lassinger Center I would also like to highlight a few successes of VPK for this second year we've implemented fast so the Florida assessment for student thinking early literacy assessment in VPK this year we saw our proficiency grow from 63% proficient M pm1 to 85% proficient and PRM 3 likewise our class observation scores have increased across all domains with our most significant increase under the instructional support domain we um look forward to seeing the impact this work has on our kindergarten Readiness rates for the upcoming year uh next year we will continue to to offer free full day attendance in VPK and prek 3 to our full-time staff at any of our elementary school sites 223 staff members um took advantage of this benefit last year additionally we will continue to provide free full day VPK at each Elementary School site for students whose families qualify for free or reduced lunch this is made through possible through our collaboration with title one80 Family is qualified for this last year with multiple students at each School site across the district in closing I'd like to thank the board and Mr hendrik for your steadfast support of early childhood programmingsoftware team as well as superintendent Hendrick and all of those who have worked hard to bring um the VPK program expansion to fruition I think it's important to highlight the data as it relates to penela County Schools um prek opportunities and as you mentioned um our students are performing well um when they have access to high quality Early Education so thank you and your team thank you any other discussion then we'll we have a motion on the floor to approve item 8.1 all those in favor say I I any opposed passes 7 to zero item 8.2 request approval of the State of Florida Readiness contract with the Early Learning Coalition of pellis County May I have a motion to approve this item I have a motion from Mrs Edmund and a second from Mrs long Mr Hendrick would you please yes thank you madam chair unlike the VPK portion where we receive funds back in the form of a voucher any child care offered or early childhood education before the VPK years requires either tuition uh unless the student has disabilities and the state pays for that so the expansion of our employee Child Care Program is related to this item I don't want to steal any more of her thunder so Mrs meckler is back up to explain this agreement Miss meckler uh good morning again um I'm excited to continue to be here um this morning to share an update on our new employee childcare initiative last February when I presented to the board um at Workshop we were just getting starting started on this project since then we've onboarded staff embarked on updating the facility to meet local licensing requirements and dug into planning for our new youngest Learners um ages 1 2 and three years old the excitement around this initiative is far beyond my department and pelis County Schools we've been contacted by other schools and organizations both within Florida and Beyond today I hope to seek um another oper I'm sorry I hope to secure another opportunity for this program with your approval of a new agreement between penis County schools and the Early Learning Coalition of pelis to contract as a School Readiness provider for the upcoming School school year at this site School Readiness the School Readiness program is a is funded primarily by the federal child care and Development Fund block grant the Florida Department of education's Division of early learning um oversees this at the state level and partners with Early Learning coalitions Statewide for implementation the School Readiness program provides scholarships to families in need of high quality child care for young children ages birth to 12 years old School Readiness funds offset a portion of the child care costs based on a family's income and risk factors as you may recall we work closely with the Early Learning Coalition of panelist through our voluntary pre kindergarten program Contracting for School Readiness will strengthen our established partnership and increase the district's ability to support our new youngest Learners at the employee Child Care site as a licensed School Readiness provider we will be able to access continuing education programs um through the Early Learning Coalition and scholarships through the juvenile welfare board for those staff members it's hard to believe that the opening of this program is just a little over a month away the facility updates are well underway and initial invitations were shared with employees prior to the end of the 23 24 school year we will continue to work closely with the penis County licensing board to meet all licensing regulations for our programming opening the week of July 29th we look forward to you coming to visit us soon board members any discussion Mrs edman thank you for thank you again you and your team you just highlighted the quick turnaround um of this um project or initiative and as it relates to being Innovative proactive and employee focused this is another great step in the right direction from pelis County Schools so thank you I just want to mention as well as we look at the investment in early learning since we're talking about early learning overall you know over the last decade both from the state and from our school board we can look also directly at our successes when it comes to as far as graduation rate third grade reading we're going to talk about Student Success in our Workshop today and there's no doubt that it's tied to that investment in early learning um but I want to thank you and your team Mrs meckler as well as Mr feny and his team and our elementary education um as well as the panelist Education Foundation and and all of those who work with us and have invested research time energy in that early learning um area the last the last decade or so so thank you so much any other comments okay I think we're ready to vote we have a motion on the floor to approve item 8.2 all those in favor say I I any opposed passes 7 to zero new business items introduced by the superintendent Mr hendrik thank you madam chair just a few items today of course you just mentioned we have a workshop coming up we will talk about student achievement uh our first look at the 2425 school year budget and several other topics we're looking forward to that later this afternoon want to celebrate five students who recently won national Scholastic art Awards the national Scholastic art and writing Awards competition is the nation's longest running most prestigious scholar ship program for artists and writers in grades 7 through 12 the student artworks were selected from thousands of Works throughout the United States and Canada and our referendum helps to fund the student entries into this program this year unfortunately not due to our error but in the national competition because they just awarded these Awards literally last week they're not doing the normal presentation of Award winners at Carnegie Hall this year uh but nonetheless we will be celebrating our Gold Medal winner uh danana roic a 10th grade student from East Lake High School for her ceramic and glass artwork titled suppression of emotions and four other students who won silver medals in the competition and we'll see those students a little bit later in the school year summerbridge uh wraps up this week our traditional summerbridge program on Thursday thousands and thousands of students have had successful four-week runs here since school has been out and our uh most of our camps our summer camps will begin the week of July 8th the district received thousands and thousands of student applications for camps this year and although some options are now sold out we do have limited seats available for the career exploration Civics History Science and mural making camps so check those out on the website you can apply and still get in before the end of the week summertime is a time for hiring as well and we continue to do well uh with teacher vacancies and all of our support staff vacancies and getting uh individuals on boarded and I want to mention that today and tomorrow we have bus driver job fairs going on uh although we did very very well with bus drivers this year can always have more and so we're looking forward to having more bus drivers join us we have a teacher information fair tomorrow on June 26th and as was you saw earlier our substitute teachers we have opportunities every month for substitutes to join us and so you can check out these vacancies and many more on our website you heard about our VPK programs also wanted to let the public know if your child's getting ready for kindergarten we are on our 100 day countdown to kindergarten it started I believe May 1st or 2nd and we're about halfway there you can find out a different activity to do every day with your child as they get ready for kindergarten at pcsb.org kg to get ready for the upcoming school year and speaking of getting ready for the upcoming school year it's never too early to think about our next listen and learn session which is only about a month away looking forward to that one at Oak Grove Middle School on July 23rd you can join us live or in person we'll have a typical Q&A with the board members that are attend myself as well as an opportunity for the public to give us input and one of the topics will be looking for input on this year as we do the listen and learns is the upcoming legislation that requires a change in school start times and so we'll be asking the public about the different options with that and last but not least as I do at every meeting I want to honor one of our employees for demonstrating our core values and this uh meeting's Honore is Mrs Susan Hartman who's worked in pelis County Schools uh for 33 years in the risk management and insurance as a benefit specialist and recently one of our employees wrote this about Miss Hartman it says she took she understood my hesitance to make a lifechanging decision for retirement she was a master at lining up all the paperwork needing to make this change and all the Departments involved she provided detailed information for me to review so I would feel confident in my decisions along the way as I became frustrated at different times she was always there to help keep me calm and graciously guided me with expertise to complete the steps I felt compelled to shine the light on her compassionate professionalism through her service as a benefits specialist thank you Mrs Hartman and to all of our employees for the work they do each and every day thank you madam chair thank you Mr hendrik items introduced by the school board attorney I have no report today thank you ma'am thank you items introduced by the board Mrs edman thank you I have a few items to share with the board and the public today a few board meetings ago there was a statement regarding controversial material objections forms being confidential I confirm with staff that that is inaccurate also I have the opportunity to serve on the panel's continue of care task force and what continues to be a part of the discussion is the Florida anti- camping law set to take take effect on October 1st I'd like to acknowledge the district's participation in the task force in the overall continue of care Comm um committee we have students and staff who have been unhoused in any additional efforts to support them is greatly appreciated the minutes and information from the last meeting was shared a few weeks ago I will be serving on the absy committee for the COC and our first meeting will be this Friday so I look forward to sharing with you the outcomes of that meeting uh superintendent Hendrick you mentioned several things that I was going to talk about which one is the conclusion of Summer Bridge and I just want to Express gratitude to the staff and who are working those camps and the staff who work year round to make sure that our schools are ready for the next school year as well as providing those enrichment opportunities for Scholars throughout the summer you are appreciated and then he mentioned the Recruitment and Retention but I just want to highlight that on June 27th from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. a recruiter will be at PTC St Pete thank you to the HR department working diligently to fill the positions with qualified staff prior to the start of school thank you any other board reports thank you um I did want to mention um you know our board has had a lot of discussion around technology um you know a whole whole range of discussion you certainly the cell phone policy that we talked about lot but but we we also discuss kids online safety when it comes to our PCS connects program um and we've we've we've had some questions around that you know students bring their computers home for summer and are and are on them and so um one of the things I've I've already mention but that I would like to request as as I went on you know as a Schoolboard member I have the opportunity to hear directly what we do when it comes to firewalls and Online safety and I have great confidence in in our different levels of safety and on our particular network but when they get home and they're on their home home network what changes so as a parent what do I need to be doing at home over the summer to ensure that Online safety and as I went on to our website and I dug down and I dug down and you can find in there where it is but I would request that maybe we have something a little bit higher up a little bit easier access for parents that says specifically you know parental tips for kids online safety or something along those lines just so that's it's easily findable we can see in one place is all the things that pen County Schools does takes this very seriously of course you know you can put as many Fireballs as you want you get a smart kid they're going to find the way around something right um but we are doing that and and we take it very seriously so I just want a really accessible link that parents can find for what they can be doing at home as well over over the summer um anything else any other comments and I know I just made a request but Mrs Woodford did you know any requests uh I did capture your request and it is something we've discussed so I I'll follow up on that and no other requests thank you with that and seeing no other business I adjourn this meeting and we'll move to public participation Mrs H do we have any speakers today uh yes Madam chair uh board members Mr Hendrick we have four speakers today thank you we're now receiving public comment on the general business of the district 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 District we cannot ensure the accuracy of statements made but we'll 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 and decorum in conducting our meetings this includes refraining from clapping or making audible no noises during or after a speaker's comments We Appreciate You assisting Us in maintaining a civil and constructive environment additionally please note that although board members or superintendent hendrik 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 Mrs thank you the first two speakers are David childis and Mary pakora Madam chair board members Mr Hendrick staff thank you for hearing me out my name is David childis I'm retired Army National Guard and a substitute teacher in pelis county for almost 24 years now off and on a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in food science and human nutrition I was honored to speak in front of you last meeting wherein I discussed the ultra processed food that our children are being served in the school system I provided you with a series the menu items downloaded from that website and I had in my own handwriting notated the number of ingredients in each item highlighting seed oils uh added starches and uh sugar most notably I had intended on reading this entire letter that I wrote to you all but um I only got three minutes so um I the point was I was honored to get a response back from uh and it was it was a wonderful response it was exactly what I had expected outlining that the national school lunch program and the US Department uh USDA is responsible for the guidelines that we all operate under my intent in coming back and speaking to you again is to understand that somewhere along the r lines I I uh signed up for one of the classes under www.hol kidsf foundation.org healthy Teachers program that was a wonderful program but it focused mainly on produce and whole grains and fruits and vegetables while I agree that is infinitely better than the processed food that our children are sometimes opening up in the school lunch it is really not how we are intended to eat your doctor would ask you to maintain your blood sugar between 65 and 85 milligrams per deciliter you cannot do that eating three times a day and snacking in between we do have in the school system and I adhere to it a snack moment you know sometimes twice a day depending on which class you go to and you do that because those are the guidelines but in my heart of hearts having studied food science and human nutrition for as long as I have know that that is not how we are designed to eat your digestive system is only 5 1/2 M long a cow's digestive system would be 45 M long that would be the animal that could handle this vegetation our pH in our stomach is 1.5 to2 that is an acid pH that is a carnivore a top predator's pH stomach a lion Mary pakora good afternoon everyone my name is Mary Bora I am my I have been a substitute teacher for the past year at for panel's County um more importantly I'm a mom of two that go to Garrison Jones I stand before you today with a heavy heart as the chosen representative of infuriated and broken families yet I am Resolute in my conviction to advocate for the well-being and the safety of our children excuse me over the past few weeks I have spoken with numerous concerned parents who have either withdrawn their children from Garrison Jones Elementary or expressed grave dissatisfaction with how certain situations involving their children Bull and bullying or sexual assault have been handled these accounts have deeply troubled me and compelled many families in my own for call to call for immediate action one particularly hering case involves a friend of mine's 8-year-old child who said he wanted to un alive himself due to trauma of sexually of alleged sexual and physical assaults by a fellow fellow classmate in the lunchroom at recess and in the classroom bathroom daily disturbingly this classmate allegedly assaulted several other 8-year-old children from the same class in the lunchroom daily as well two victims my son included are now receiving mental health support that are what is most appalling is that these 8 this 8-year-old uh these 8-year-old children reported the incidents repeatedly only to be ignored by the teacher in the school administration alarmingly it is reported that the school administration has shown a disturbing pattern of men minimizing these incidents with the guidance counsil calling sexual touches mere hits not informing parents of incidents and a teacher refused to allow the student to say bully the affected students requests for meeting to address these grave concerns were allegedly ignored and the children's well-being was seemingly disregarded in Florida the in local paren Doctrine established through the combination of State statutes and Court precedences the keys and laws regulations include full statutes Title 9 chapter 13- public K through 12 education section 10 sorry 13.32 D students subject to subject to control of Stu of school which grants students authority to control and discipline students while they are under the supervision of the school okay I'm have to pass some of this because I'm running out of time but I will email each one of you this okay I ask you as a parent of the prin as I asked the principal of Garrison Jones do you think there was enough Supervision in the lunchroom all year long her answer was and I quote I think there was adequate supervision and I would not change anything this response in a safety plan where my child would be singled out and isolated was all that we were offered why do children the victims have to be removed isolated and blamed for acting out when they are being the ones bullied harassed and ask Dr Gonzalez if you'll talk to Mr Bora thank you thank you the next two speakers are Bren apple and brand Robinson good morning board members how are you today uh I'm here on behalf of to bring back ban books uh when you ban books you take away someone's freedom of expression when you ban books you eradicate important pieces of history that go unrecognized unheard of and when you ban books you take take away someone's message and there were just many such as tequilla Mockingbird written by Harper Lee that tells the harsh realities that PC face day in and day out this book is gay written by Juno Dawson that Comm community that communicates the importance of lgbtqia plus sexual education as well as safety and communication with the safest relationships the handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood that highlights reproductive freedom and Independence over bodily autonomy Atwood actually took cases Nationwide and took pieces bits and pieces and made them into galed which is the book of the Bible itself um these books were not just banned these books were silenced every time you take a piece of historical literature that expands the minds of many and you add them to your list you are silencing and eradicating history no matter fiction non-fiction autobiography or biography each one had an important moral or message to them that's what we are lacking here when you decide to silence a story morals you are taking away someone's voice thank you for your time board members good evening sorry am I am I here in the evening gosh I am on summer break you know I am so disconnected my apologies um good morning Madam chair members of the board superintendent hendrik and staff um my name is is brt Robinson and always you know it's my honor and my pleasure to be here with you today um even though it's my summer break I am looking forward so looking forward to starting my 28th year um 27 them here in penales County Schools I hope we'll reflect just for a second on the immense experience and the immense commitment and the immense Integrity of all who are gathered here today um it's always my honor to address you I'm actually going to be starting at a brand new school after 26 years at dun Eden high school I'm be starting at pinal's high innovation um it's as if I scripted this job description for myself um I've never been so excited to uh to go back to school but for now I just want to encourage you as a board to develop a process by which all of the district seniors in high school across our district all of our seniors actually have the opportunity to register to vote ideally in their American government classes and ideally using organizations like the League of Women Voters who have a long and proud tradition of nonpartisan commitment to our democracy um we have a lot to be proud of in this District if we think about the last four or five decades just the changes in the curriculum standards for our district are something we should all be incredibly proud of and they reflect the commitment we have to not only teaching and learning from the immense history that we've been through as American citizens but of course the structure and function of our government we're proud that our students have to take Civics in seventh grade we're proud they have to take American government in 12th grade um but I think if we just reflect on all we've experienced and been through in the last few years the divisiveness the bitterness you know we're here because we believe in transcending that with dialogue and discourse and I think it's important that our our seniors actually experience participatory democracy and that it be modeled for them that there's a degree of nonpartisanship involved I think if I were a senior looking back on on my high school career I'd like to think that hey I was registered to vote in my high school classroom an organization who exists for nonpartisanship in the defense of our democracy so I want to urge you to consider developing that process for our seniors and again I want to remind all of us to be incredibly proud of what we do because you know our Public Schools really are the foundation of our democracy and thank you all for everything you do be well there are no more speakers thank you that concludes our meetings today uh board members will take 30 minutes before we start the board Workshop so um see it's about 11:05 if my vision serves me well so about 11:35 we'll commence the board Workshop see you upstairs