Good afternoon everyone. Thank you to the October 7, 2025 Martin County School Board workshop. Like to call this meeting to order and we will now do the pledge of allegiance. to the flag
of the >> Miss Falls, will you call the role? >> Dr. Morardi, >> here. >> Mrs. Roberts, >> yes. >> Mrs. Powers, >> here. >> Mrs. Russell, >> here. >> Mrs. Pritchette, >> here.
Okay, our first item is board member info share. Does anyone have anything they'd like to share? Seeing none, we will go right to public comment. Like to read this before we start. Citizen input is vital to the improvement of our district. Most times
your remarks may be listened to without comment from the board members or superintendent. This does not mean they are heard with any less intensity or concern. Where appropriate, the superintendent and staff will investigate your comments and report back to you and the board with an answer. We thank you for taking the time
and having the concern to make our district better. Your presentation to the board should not exceed three minutes. Letters or statements from others not present can be given to our clerk who will be sure that each schoolboard member and the superintendent receive a copy. To keep
our record straight and authentic, our policy does not permit you to read the statements of others into the record. going to call the first person then and I'll call the second person as well. Kristen Senorelli followed by Irene Gomes.
Good afternoon. My name is Christine Honka Signarelli and I'm here to urge the school board of Martin County to reinstate Matt theold to his paid classroom teacher position. Some quick background. My brother and I grew up here in Martin County. We attended schools from kindergarten through 12th grade. My mother was a classroom teacher
at Murray Middle and Martin County High School for over 30 years. While I raised my own children in Keller, Texas, I served as a leadership positions multiple times in the parent TPTA. I remained an engaged parent and I worked for many years in the schools as an occupational therapist serving students
with special needs. I am currently employed as a contract therapist for this district. Mr. Theold also grew up in this county and graduated from Martin County High School. He has served the students of this district with dedication and commitment for more than 16 years. He has a reputation for being fair and
impartial in the classroom. His Facebook comments were posted on a private page that was in no way related to his teaching position. By removing Mr. Theobolf from the classroom, Martin County School District has infringed on the right to free speech afforded by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. I
have spoken with several friends, some who work for the district. They're afraid to speak up and speak out due to fears of retaliation. By censoring Matt theold, the censorship of others is a predictable consequence. I think it's fair that we point out now that at least one member of this current
board has a history of posting highly controversial and photos and comments on her own social media page. Miss Pritchette's comments are not only political, but they are also racist and discriminatory. As a speaker at last month's meeting
pointed out, words have consequences. Now it is time to decide if that applies only to those with whom you disagree. Thank you. Irene Gomes followed by Patty Beyond. >> Hi, my name is Irene Gomes. I've lived
here since 1958. I've known Matt the family for many years. um growing up here. Uh I went to school with uh with his uncle uh and like I said, I've known his family. Matt the I'm here also to for him to be reinstated. I cannot
understand how this could even happen. Like the previous person that spoke, this was on a private Facebook page and not his own. Um I think back to I grew up with Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers always said, "Look out for the helpers." I see
Matt the Bolt as the helpers. And I'll give a good example. When I was growing up, my family always took our family on a Saturday night to pizza. And if there were other children that we knew that looked like they needed extra help or needed a hug, they would come along with
us. And I've gone along to do the same thing with my children and grandchildren and their friends. Uh, I recently had a dinner where I go out for pizza and we invited this child with us and he was telling me he was thinking of dropping out of school. I said, uh, you know,
asked him what school he was going to and he was going to the same school Matt works at. And I said, you know, Matt Theabald and he said, "Yes." He said, "He's a great teacher." I said, "You know," and I was teasing him and saying, "You don't really know Matt Theabald." He said, "Yes, I do. Call him." Well, I
have his number because Matt Theiabald has helped me. He's one that look out and if he sees somebody needs something, he came to my business one time and brought something that I needed. And so I called Matt on the phone and asked him if he knew that young man and he said he did. And I said, "This gentle, this
young child is talking about dropping out of school." And I said, "I'm really concerned about it." He said, "I've already been talking to him. This is the kind of teacher that we want in our school. This is the kind of teachers that look out for children there. You know, a good teacher is hard to come by. I mean, we have a lot of good teachers,
but we don't want to lose any. Please keep Matt Theobalt in our system. >> Thank you, Patty Beyond, followed by Robin Cass. >> Good afternoon, school board. Thank you
for giving me this opportunity to speak in support of my friend and colleague, Matt Theobald. My name is Patty Beyond. I'm a retiree with 32 years of service in the Martin County schools. During my time as a teacher, I was fortunate to know Matt first as a Martin County High
School student and then as a teacher at Martin County High Schools. Over the years that I've known him, I've always been so positively impressed by all of the ways in which he has contributed to our community. As an educator in Martin County Schools, Matt has taught for
nearly 17 years with no disciplinary actions on his record. His concern for students and for his subject matter have made Matt an exceptional teacher. My dream today is for him to be able to return to the classroom to carry on the
job he so completely loves. Matt has also worked tirelessly to better the teaching profession through his work as president of the Martin County Education Association. As a member of the Martin County community, Matt can always be counted on to participate in
environmental issues that affect all of us. Matt believes so strongly in our community that he even ran for the Florida House of Representatives, earning much public support. Like all of us, Matt is entitled to freedom of
speech. I do not feel that his speaking out on social media should take away his opportunity to pursue his life's work. Matt has taught his students about the First Amendment. He should be able to benefit from this amendment. Matt
deserves freedom of speech. Please put him back in the classroom. >> Thank you. Robin Cass, followed by Ginger Shannon. >> Hi, I'm Robin Cass. Um, thank you for
letting me speak. I'm here today as a concerned Martin County resident, an American citizen, and a parent on behalf of Matt Theabald. When you consider his employment status, please know that he's been a wellrespected and dedicated teacher for 17 years. He's been involved
in his community and even selected by his peers to represent them. As a president of the teachers union, he has impressed me as a warm and kind person. While he may have shared opinions that many or some in our community oppose, he did so on a private social media page
with the expectation of discussing his views with people he knows. All US citizens should be able to discuss differing concerns and views, even if uncomfortable or unpleasant, to encourage free speech, civil discussion, and exchange of ideas. The First
Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to speak freely, and the Constitution also guarantees a right to privacy, not to have our personal lives invaded for political purposes. These protections exist regardless of one's political point of view. Finally, please
remember that Matt did not bring that discussion to his classroom and he has remained consistently committed to keeping his classroom 100% free of political bias. Please support this outstanding teacher, dedicated family man, and involved community member by allowing him to resume his admirable
work as a teacher in our school system. >> Thank you, Ginger Shannon, followed by Marty Bi. Good afternoon, Superintendent Maine and school board members. My name is Ginger Shannon. I'm a retired teacher here in
Martin County. I taught here for 33 years here in Martin County, the last 20 at Martin County High School. I absolutely loved every minute of it. I love teaching so much. And when I was approaching retirement, I looked around and I thought, my goodness gracious, I I
hope there's people that enjoy it as much as I do and and will follow in my footsteps maybe. Uh I had such a good tenure everywhere. And lo and behold, there was a young man that came at the school at Martin County High. He was there for a couple of years before I retired and I got to know him and I
said, "He's perfect. He's perfect." He was enthusiastic. He was intelligent. He was committed to his students. He was had full of uh character and integrity and he stayed here in Martin County as a as a former graduate of the high school. A lot of times our students leave
because they don't want to stay around here but he stayed to to commit himself to Martin County High School and I commend him for that. uh when I retired I I followed his uh his his career and uh he has been such a leader for his
class his classroom teacher fellow classroom teachers and he's been a leader for his advocate for his students and when I found out that recently he was going to transfer to Spectrum I was doubly happy because you know what I have Spectrum at I have a soft spot in my heart for Spectrum I worked there at
night when I was teaching at Martin County High as a tutor and th those students need a good role model so much. They're at risk. They they need someone with the integrity and the character of of someone like Matt Theabolt. You know,
I have to say Charlie Kirk was very controversial himself. And yet he promoted free speech. His college campus tour was all about that. Debate the issues, debate things, exchange ideas. And
that's what the the First Amendment. It's our first amendment, God forbid, of the United States of America. And we are we we allowed to have controversial ideas and thoughts and we need to have differences of opinion, but please res respect what a wonderful
teacher. We can't afford to lose a good teacher like him. It's hard enough in this county to get we're at the bottom of the barrel and salaries as it is. We can't afford to lose a good teacher because we it's very hard to recruit them here. Please respect the the privileges of of of this first amendment
and reinstate Matt Theabold. He's a wonderful wonderful teacher. Thank you. >> Thank you, Marty Leki. Followed by Joe Salami. Good afternoon, school board and superintendent.
My name is Marty Baliki. I was a teacher of the year, dean, coach of Martin Ken High School for 37 years. I was selected into the Florida Coaches Hall of Fame. 10 years after retiring, uh Matt called me to speak in front of his advanced
history classes. Matt remembered 30 years before of a presentation I did about my father's experiences in World War II. My dad fought seven months in the front lines against the Nazis. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.
I have his purple heart right here to prove it. But then that's his dog tag right there. My father was fighting to preserve the US Constitution, i.e. freedom of speech. I firmly believe
Matt is one of the reasons why Martin K High School was rated an A school last year. Matt made critical comments about Charlie Kirk on Facebook. No question. Facebook has been around for 20 years. I use it to view whose birthday it may be,
see where people are traveling, and really love those baby pictures. Facebook is also where political views are expressed freely. You may have seen my views. Where are the Epstein files?
I had no clue who this Charlie Kirk was. Billy didn't. I just want to make it clear that anyone killed for their freedom of speech is horrendous. I eventually did see a video of Charlie. Charlie's words were offensive to me. Did Charlie have the right to say what
he said? Of course, it was his First Amendment right to do so. Charlie would not have liked what Matt commented, though. But Charlie would argue that Matt had the right to say it. Charlie Kirk was a free speech advocate.
In 1989, the Supreme Court said, quote, "The government may not prohibit speech simply because it's offensive or disrespectful." Offensive or disrespectful. Yes, there are limits to freedom of speech. You just can't go into the movie theater and
cry fire. What is happening here in our small community of Martin County is the reincarnation of Salem Witch Trials 2.0. I don't think the school board wants to get into policing of Facebook. I do hope
there is someone on the board who has common sense the firing of Matt Theobal would be a travesty for future Martin County students. He was a teacher. He was a student of mine who I highly respected.
As the Kentucky Senator Ran Paul said, one second, legislating against the freedom of speech is indeed a slippery slope. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Joe Salmeni, followed by Frank Mcrist.
Um, I do not know Matt. I know of his um accomplishments and listening to everybody else, it's even more impressive than what I knew. It seems to me we all can make a mistake. So regardless of how or why it
happened, this seems to be a very simple thing to correct. Man has shown through his character what he does for the community, school system, the kids, teachers. I hope that you see it as clear as I see it that he should be reinstated and
benefit the community. >> Thank you. Frank Mcrist followed by Mary Joe Theabald. We're having fun yet? Don't recall an opening prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for these people in
this room. Please Lord, let us get along a little better. Um, I got my trumpard friends. I got my libtard friends. My libtard friends say, "How in the hell do you talk to those trumpards?"
My trumpart friends say, "How in the hell do you talk to those lip tarts? Please, everyone in this room recognize someone someone wants us to devolve into civil war. Okay,
that's all I have to say about that. Now, I didn't know it was going on here tonight, but the Theo thing, I may disagree with every fiber of
I'm guessing Mr. Libtard Theob soul. Okay. But I always think of the Marines I've talked to and they always come down on one side of this issue. the guys that watch their buddies bleed and die
and they'll say, "Yeah, man. I disagree." I was a liar at one time. Uh, I disagree with everything you have to say, but I believe and you're right to say it because that's where we live in the United States of America.
Now, things are a little crazy these days. I would say to anybody, if you're going to do something controversial, just hold off. wait till the next morning, sleep on it before you throw it out there to the world.
The reason I came here tonight was I'm a substitute teacher and I've been all around the system and I want everyone to know that Willoughby Learning Center is a very unique and different place.
Uh it is trial by fire every minute of every day. And the people that work there are special and the potential for Ignition is real and every day.
I mean, I'm an adrenaline drunkie, so I like going there, but that place wears me out. And what I'm saying is this. If there's ever one school you need to treat uniquely and never ever make and never ever do anything to understaff it, okay,
it's Willoughby Learning Center. They need two people in every classroom. Period. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mary Joe Theabald followed by William Gist or Gist. >> Good afternoon.
When teachers or people in general are afraid to speak freely on any subject, we have in we have succeeded in self-imposing the suppression of free speech. This is certainly the most alarming and dangerous aspect of
limiting free speech. When we are afraid that we might lose our job or be persecuted because of what we say and we feel safer by not saying it, then government and institutions have effectively eliminated free speech as
defined in the constitution. Matt Theobald has been denied his constitutional guarantee of free speech. For the past 43 years, I have been privileged to be known as Matt's mom, and I am so proud of the man he has
become. I am proud of him for standing up for his and for all of our right to to be guaranteed free speech without fear of intimidation as mandated in our constitution. We cannot tell you how proud we are when we meet someone out on
the the street and they say Matt was their favorite teacher or when we meet someone whose child was the his student and they tell us what a difference he made in their lives. Matt is a lifelong resident of Martin County, a product of this very education system. He's never
had a disciplinary action on his record. He ran a political campaign and never influenced his class on his views. After the horrific events of January 6, he was commended for the fair and unbiased
lessons that he taught. It seems very extreme and highly uh unusual to administer the punishment of the very worst kind for a first offense. His name has been disparaged, his reputation has been harmed, and his
livelihood and his ability to to support his family will most certainly be impacted. We were surprised there were no warnings because parents, members of the community, and members of the school board may have different opinions from Matt, it does not make those opinions
any more valid than his. What is apparent here is that an attempt to terminate Matt Theabal's employment from this district is an opportunity to rid the district of an advocate and a voice for students and teachers and weaken the
organized union that supports them. It would be fair to consider Matt's side of the story, not just listen to the noise of the people who oppose his views. It's well documented his personal opinions have never invaded his classroom.
>> Thank you. William Jist followed by Margaret Cox. Good afternoon. Uh my name is William Gist and my background is a little different. I've been a resident of Hope Sound since 2013. But in my career, I was a middle school
social studies teachers in suburban Indianapolis for five years. Then I spent the next 25 years representing public school employees in five states including Florida. Uh I believe that the obligation of the board is to uphold the constitutional
rights of its employees and this to me is a very simple matter of protected speech by a public employee. This was not done in at school or in school time. Most importantly, what he posted was a
matter of public concern. This wasn't a private grievance. It was a matter of public concern. and his comments were about a private citizen, not an elected official,
but a man who led a movement, but a controversial one where reasonable people disagreed about the validity of his positions. When I read the letter from the commissioner of education
that was uh published on on my news feed, the first thing I thought of was the movie Animal House when the dean put the Delta House on double secret probation the day before Charlie Kirk was killed.
How would any Martin County employee know that if they put a comment on a private Facebook page would be subject to the disciplinary action up to including interment uh termination?
One of the tests, seven tests for just cause that are contained in his contract require fair notice. In other words, arbitrators expect the employer to make sure that the employee knows that what
they are doing will lead to disciplinary action. And I don't believe this is the case at all. The case I used when I was representing teachers with this kind of issue was the 1983 course of Kuk versus Meyers.
And the court made very clear in that that when a public employee talks about a matter of public concern that is protected speech. And I urge you to reinstate this man even though you may not like what he said, but he had a
constitutional right to say it. >> Thank you very much. >> Margaret Cox, followed by John Jacob. >> Good afternoon. My name is Margaret Cox. I am a resident of Martin County and a concerned citizen. I am here to talk
about Matt Tia Bold and I understand he has been a very dedicated educator for the last 17 years. I have been thinking today and the last month actually. I'm still sort of
reeling from everything that's happened with the death of Charlie Kirk and the school shooting and then deaths after that. You know, because of Charlie Kirk, people have been shot and the gun
violence is absolutely horrible. And we have such access to social media that sometimes when we listen to content creators or actors or politicians, we can get them access to them 24 hours a
day. And it's just very easy to feel like they're our friend or they're somebody we know really well, but in actuality, they're not. I mean, it's not that they're not influential and can't have a positive impact on our life, but
it used to be we didn't have that kind of access. With Matt Tabold, he's somebody that we know personally, that our students know personally, that actually does have a direct impact on
people's life. And so I think it's more important to look at it in this context rather than to be angry over something he said over a social media influencer, a a political influencer and content
creator. Thank you very much. >> Thank you John followed by Joanne Wetzel. >> My name is John Jook. I'm a Steuart native. I was published as a teenager. I've been quoted on Yahoo Finance. I've
been in USA Today. I happen to be a four-time best-selling author and I even taught college. Today, I'll talk about some things I think folks are going to be chatting about with this teacher. I'll talk about the elephant in the room
that nobody has addressed so far. I'll give you my thoughts and an alternative solution. I imagine some of you are going to come up here and say it's about first amendment right, freedom of speech
on the teacher. The other side's going to say, well, liar, liar, pants on fire. You're a right an at will state. The teacher is glorifying a sho school shooting.
You will find ways to terminate or keep this teacher. The value you place on student safety and well-built being is going to be one of your things. Taking a different point of view, Susan Mohei graduated from Martin County High
in 1983. She was the editor of NBC News in Tampa. That market goes over to Orlando. She's currently a substitute teacher for you. The elephant in the room is on June
12th, 2016, the Pulse nightclub shooting happened. That was one of Susan Moahhee's stories. 49 people were shot and killed. 53 were wounded. As people here know, or they should know
that Omar, who did the shooting in year 2000, was expelled from Martin County High School for fighting in the math class. Then he went to Spectrum, the alternative choice. So, as a school district, you had a student that became
the number two mass shooter and killer in United States of America. That is your history. is on you. Should you retain a teacher that glorifies a school shooting, you should just ask, will the
probability of a school shooting increase, decrease, or stay the same should you retain this teacher? Well, glorifying a school shooting, you guys being the school district that taught the number two mass shooter
killer in the United States of America, you may take a point of view that's a little bit different than most. The alternative is to pay this the teacher two-year salary, have them educate people in the Martin County jail to teach them how to read. That is the
alternative. That is a safe alternative. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Joanne Wetszel, followed by Sam Haye. >> Wow. >> My name is Joanne Wetszel. I'm an American citizen, resident of Florida,
uh, Martin County High School for the past 15 years. I'm a taxpayer. I'm also a retired social studies teacher. I taught at Martin County High School, South Fork High School, team leader there. I uh taught the advanced placement and international balora
classes. I'm the past president of Florida Council for the Social Studies and I'm one of their director Emmeriti for the same organization. Let me state for the record that I do not condone or celebrate an assassination of Kirk or any other
political celebrity. And why? Because our founding fathers wisely placed the freedom of speech, religion, the press, assembly, and petition at the top of the Constitution. And for a good reason. And that good
reason is because it protects truthful and honest opinions. Not obscenity, not fighting words, not false advertising, but it allows for discussions and civil discussions and exchange of ideas to happen.
Now, for those of you who may not know, Charlie Kirk was a very controversial figure. He was an advocate for many things. He advocated for, among other things, the execution of an American president.
Did you know that he advocated stoning death of LGBTQ plus individuals? Did you know that? That's pretty violent. It is. Go re research it. You can find it. It's out there. He advocated for the
return of Jim Crow laws. He advocated for women to lose the vote. He advocated for their submission to men, telling young girls to leave their dreams and passions
behind unless they were simply interested in becoming mothers. He advocated for the rejection of empathy, said it was a weakness. He advocated banning separation of church and state. He advocated closing
public schools. He advocated for second amendment rights even at the cost of some gun deaths every year is acceptable. Pretty radical stuff. I don't see anything that radical in
Matt Theobald's Facebook private Facebook page. School boards and school districts are supposed to be aolitical organizations. So when I saw your post for thoughts and prayers on the Facebook district page, I
was wondering why you had not given thoughts and prayers to other uh political assassinated uh victims during the past year or the children who were killed in a mass gun shooting on the same day as Kirk. >> Your time is up. I did give you over
three minutes. Sam Haye, followed by Bob Mackamson. Hello. I was disappointed to learn that the Martin County Teachers Union President has been removed from his
teaching duties. Matt Theabald, a 17-year veteran teacher, apparently posted unfavorable remarks about conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who is recently murdered in yet another incident of irrational gun violence. Mr.
Theobal's remarks were posted on what I understand to be a private social media account with no connection to the classroom or his teaching duties. Simply because his comments do not correspond to the political position of those in power does not justify denying Theobald
his right to free speech. I can't help wondering how Theoal's remarks were made public to begin with. This thing seems very much like the situation which prevailed in the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin when neighbors were encouraged in form on neighbors in an authoritarian
regime amounting to thought police. As Theobald is the president of the Martin County Education Association, the discip disciplinary action taken against him could be interpreted as a pretext to undermine the teachers union. Let us
remember that our teachers here in Florida are among the most poorly paid in the country. We should all be ashamed of this. The teachers union deserves our support. Its goals align with the needs of our children for quality education.
School board members, I urge you to restore Mr. Theobal to the classroom immediately. The action taken against him is a blatant suppression of his first amendment right to free speech. We must unite to oppose the stripping away of our constitutional rights at a time
when our government is slipping into authoritarianism. It is very disappointing to hear those who swear they are absolutist in defense of our constitution demonstrate it that in fact they are ardent supporters of constitutional freedoms except when
they're not. Whatever one's political position may be, our constitution guarantees us the right to express it freely and without fear of retribution. Mr. Theobald is a proven teacher dedicated to his profession. Our students need and deserve teachers of
his caliber. >> Thank you. >> Bob Mackinson, followed by Bill Smithson. >> Hi, good afternoon. I'm Bob Mumson. I just have three questions for this board. The first question is, has any
Martin County student been harmed by the comments that he posted? Second question is, is there any evidence he said this in a classroom? And the third question is, if you really care about the welfare and safety of our students, shouldn't those questions be the focus of your inquiry?
>> Thank you, Bill Smithson, followed by I think it's Carol Sake. Okay. Hi, Madame Chair, Superintendent Maine, and members of the school board.
I'm here to speak on behalf of Matt. I have known Matt as both a friend and a colleague for over 10 years, and I can vouch that he possesses the highest level of moral and ethical standards. He lives his values every single day, whether in his personal life or in the
classroom. Matt is not known for bringing his personal religious or political views into his teaching. I know for a fact that the uh faculty and students at Martin County High School have nothing but the highest regard and respect for Matt. I spend most of my
time substituting there. Um, so I know for a fact, I know many of the faculty, I know many of the students that have gone through his classes. All right. I have personally heard from many of his students over the past several years that he is perhaps the best teacher they
ever had. Matt cares for his students and will go through great lengths to ensure their well-being and success. I find it incomprehensible you would even consider terminating a 17-year veteran teacher with an impeccable record and stellar
credentials. I hope you think very carefully and objectively from all the comments you've heard today, the emails and phone calls you've been receiving before you make a final decision as to M Matt Theobolt's fate. Test your empathy and moral
character and think how your decision will impact the life of a loving father, loyal life partner, lifelong Martin County resident, community leader, and above all, a 17-year veteran teacher who has devoted his life to educating the youth
of this county. Please do not let political biases and personal vendettas influence your final decision. Do the right thing. And being that I got a couple of seconds left, I just want to say
if you were to really go through the social media accounts of more than of all your teachers, you would have to suspend more than half of them. So, this really looks to me like a personal
vendetta. I don't know whose it is, but like I said, there is a lot of stuff that's gone on out there. I personally, anybody I know will never condone the shooting of anybody for exercising their
political rights. All right. But the controversy was was not the death was what he represented. All right. All right. and giving a hero's uh send off. >> Thank you very much.
Carol Sake, followed by Michael Panella. >> Good afternoon. Anyone who has paid attention, especially these past few years, knows these proceedings and our input um are little more than
performative, but yet I persist and I congratulate all of you on being here as well. I have personally witnessed this district do nothing for a student experiencing significant abuse issues on social media. When that was addressed with the
district, the parent was advised that because the abusive allegations were on social media, they were outside the oversight of this district. That circumstance caused significant physical, social, emotional, and long-term damage to that student.
Ironically, the district couldn't or wouldn't protect that student, but finds the authority to wield that power over teachers with a special extra focus on the one who happens to leave the union. How many times has this board convened
to extend the no pay beyond fiveday suspension? I'm sure that special meeting has nothing to do with someone's position in the union. As leaders in this community, you have the opportunity to demonstrate that there is a place for dissent in the
conversations of adults and that although privacy is not guaranteed on the internet as long as teachers aren't bringing their personal views into the classroom, they are allowed to exist outside those classroom walls as fully functioning constitutionally protected
Americans just like each of you. Mr. Theobold had the illusion of privacy when discussing the subject not on his own personal social media but in response to his mother on her private setting Facebook page. Instead of
engaging in debate, a friend copied his words and in the cowardly way plastered them on open forum sites instead of engaging themselves in debate. That is the act of dis that is the act of disruption in the community. I would
further argue that Mr. Bold showed considerable restraint in not engaging in debate, not because he was not able to more articulately express his views, but out of respect to the district and his responsibility to avoid public controversy.
Matt loves his family, his students, his job, and his co-workers. He believes in participation in government, the foundation and principles of this country, and fighting for the underdog. I wanted to come here today to speak to him and to show to speak to you and show
him his true values have had an impact on those who've seen him in real life, not just in the heated moment that he never intended to be made public and certainly has never been accused of bringing to his classroom.
>> Thank you, Michael Panella, followed by Mindy Square. Uh good afternoon uh members of the school board uh superintendent. Uh my name is uh Michael Panella. I've lived
in Stewart uh for over 30 years. I have a master's degree in uh education. I have known and respected Mr. Theabold for many years. I strongly support returning be Mr. Theobold to his students in his classroom. Uh Mr.
Theabold has been a Martin County teacher for 17 years and has not had any disciplinary action against him and has committed to not sharing his personal views in the classroom. We all know the
importance of protecting our constitutional rights to free speech. Over the years that I have known Mr. Theobold I believe he is an excellent role model for the school district's pillars
of the character counts program. Everybody's aware of that. Correct. We've had it here for decades. Correct. Uh and that you are likely hearing from many young people who are all m also Mr. Theob students who agree and attest to
thea engaging teaching abilities and his character. I ask you to rein reinstate Mr. The old immediately so he can get back to being a good teacher and for him
to prepare the pillars learning objectives and activities for his students for this year's National Character Count Week, which happens to start soon on the 20th of this month. We all need to pay attention to this
decades old program and see how they match out to people that are serving us. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Mindy Suo, followed by Sam Bandino. [Applause] Good afternoon, superintendent and
members of the board. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Volater. If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. Nam Chomsky.
Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without it being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back,
that is an outrage. Winston Churchill. As a taxpaying resident of Martin County, I'm deeply concerned that the termination of an exceptionally well-qualified, experienced, and exemplary teacher based
on a clear violation of constitutional first amendment rights will lead the district into a long and costly legal battle. I would much rather see the district use funds that will be wasted defending a lawsuit put into funding for
arts or other academic programs. Additionally, it is the height of hypocrisy to remove an employee who is committed to leaving their personal views outside the classroom and other district-reated activities for having
made a private comment on a private social media page when at least one member of this board has made public comments on a public page that are offensive to many members of our community.
All district personnel should be treated equally. I urge every member of this board to cease this baseless course of action, reinstate the teacher to the classroom, and get back to honoring their oaths of
office by focusing on making Martin County Public Schools the schools of first choice for every student in the county. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sam Fandino,
followed by Debbie Fontaine. Hello, Mr. Mine and members of the school board. I was going to write something. I couldn't get the thoughts out on the page. Um, I'm a current student of Mr. Theobald. I take his economics honors class at Spectrum. Uh,
I don't think anyone at Spectrum is at Spectrum because they're having an easy high school experience. Um, but I think what what makes all the difference when you go to school is knowing that the teachers that you have care about you and that they really care about the
subject. Um, and you know, and and Mr. Theob cares. It was evident the first time I met him. It was evident every time I walk into his classroom. Even before I talked to him, I knew he cared because his room was so decorated. I mean, it must have taken him hours. He's got books from all of his subjects. He's
got newspaper things hung up. He's got so many like metal stickers from all the places he's visited. Um he's even got a model train that he took the time to build with another student a Friday evening. Uh which I think is just exemplary of of the kind of character that he is. You know, the kind of person
he is. Um you know, I don't know if any of you guys really care. I don't know if any of you guys are debating what to do, but you know, if you guys really care about the kids in the classroom, what what we think, what we want, I think I can speak for everyone who has Mr.
Theold, that we want him back. We we want our teacher. Um, yeah, as far as his comments are concerned, I don't agree with what he said, but it really just doesn't change anything. Uh, he's his topics are political, you know, economics. We were learning about
communism and socialism and not once would I have ever guessed he held any views which way or the other. He's the definition of a nonpartisan professional. Um yeah, you know, just um I really want to thank Mr. Theobalt
because he made every day easier, made every day easier, not just for me, but you could tell the other students. So, if you know you guys are are looking for a way to decrease school shootings, the way to do that is to have Mr. Theobald
in the classroom because because >> Thank you, Sam. >> It's just that you know, um yeah, thank you. Uh >> appreciate >> very much. Thank you, >> Debbie Fontaine. Followed by John Speck.
>> Good afternoon. My name is Debbie Fontaine and I would like to remind the board of the preamble of the Constitution of the United States. We the people of the United States in order to form a more per perfect union,
establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, and provide for the common deference, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America. And then I would like to also remind you of our first amendment rights which read, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of or
abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the people peaceibly to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. So, you really need to reinstate this wonderful teacher. Thank you.
>> Thank you, John Spec, followed by Ashley Braden Nolles. >> Good afternoon. Um, I'm a teacher at Martin County High School. I've been teaching for six years. And while I'm not here to address anything about Mr.
Theobold and I'm here to address the recent changes to the grading policy here in this county. Specifically, the rule that no student may earn less than a 50% even if no work has been turned in. This policy sets a dangerous precedent. It tells our students that effort doesn't matter and that failure
will be erased for convenience rather than corrected through learning. I've been a teacher here for six years and I've know when to choose my battles carefully. And this isn't this is one I can't stay silent on. Grades are not just arbitrary numbers. They represent what a student has actually learned and
mastered. To artificially inflate them, in effect is to falsify them. Would you trust a doctor who passed medical school with a 30% average? Would you board a plane with a pilot who has never passed their licensing tests? Of course not. Now, I realize that comparison might
sound hyperbolic, but it makes an important point. When we lower the academic standards, we teach students that mastery is optional and that showing up is just enough. And if that's the message that they internalize here, they'll carry it into the workforce and into life where the stakes are much
higher. Every teacher I know already provides numerous opportunities for students to improve their grades through retakes, makeups, and extra help. This is how we teach accountability and perseverance. We don't punish failure. We use it as a tool for growth. By giving half credit for no work teaches
the opposite lesson, that responsibility and effort doesn't matter. In my classroom, I like to call this grade calculus. And that's where students weigh the effort against the reward. If they know they'll get a 50 for doing nothing, many will simply choose not to try. For parents, I want you to imagine
telling your child they'll earn $100 for cleaning the garage and then handing them $50 anyway, even if they refuse. what motivation would they have to do the work the next time? And unfortunately, this isn't an isolated issue. We've seen similar moves before. The proposed grading scale that made
classwork worth 60% of a total grade, the 1D rule allowing students to pass with minimal effort, and the use of egeneuity for credit recovery where students can simply Google the answers. I've seen students promoted and given credit after doing virtually nothing all
year long. So I ask, who truly benefits from this policy? It's not the students who graduate unprepared for higher education or the workforce. It's not the teachers who strive to give strive to give honest and accurate feedback. The only beneficiary is the institution that can point to inflated grades and higher
graduation rates. If Martin County truly wants to be the number one district in Florida, we must uphold our standards and not abandon them. Excellence can't be achieved through shortcuts. It requires honesty, hard work, and accountability from all of us. Thank you. Thank you,
>> Ashley Braden Nolles, followed by Sydney Thomas. >> Good afternoon. My name is Ashley Braden Nolles. This is Sage. I'm a lifetime resident of Martin County. I attended Jensen Beach Elementary, Stewart Middle
School, and graduated Martin County High School. I'm sorry I forgot my Spanish, but you did great. Our good school systems are one of the reasons my husband and I have chosen to raise our children here. I just simply do not care what political views
teachers express outside of the classroom. This county used to be one teachers aspired to be a part of the current environment is so hostile. The educators and colleagues, the current ones, thank you to the retired ones who are here, but the current ones who can
attest to Mr. professional skills or support his free speech rights are not comfortable to stand behind this microphone publicly for fear of retribution. Thankfully, I work in the private sector. Educators fearing communication with leaders do
not serve the students. Becoming known as a community hostile to teachers will do nothing to help the growing teacher shortage. Your duty is to the education of students, not political agenda. I ask you to consider the long-term
repercussions of your choices. In 10 years time, who will be left to teach my children? Thank you. >> Thank you. Last speaker, Sydney Thomas. Good afternoon. My name is Sydney Thomas. I've been a Martin County
resident and parent for 16 years. I'm also a former Martin County School District employee as a program specialist. I had the opportunity to meet dozens of educators here. I unsuccessfully ran for school board last year. I bring that up because it gave me an opportunity to meet many more of our
Martin County School District teachers and administrators. I have never met a more authentically passionate educator than Matt. The teaching profession is a nearly thankless job. Any conversation or interaction that I had with Matt was
always always focused on what was best for public education and the students in Martin County. Removing him as an educator is one of the scariest precedents I will have seen in this county, state, and country. You will be prioritizing politics over what is in
the best interest of your students. You're going to make an excuse to do it. You're going to make an excuse to do it. You're going to say it's community outrage. And I would beg of you to look at how many people showed up here today.
And here's the outrage if you choose to remove him from the profession. I beg of you to look at world history and the action that you are considering taking and rethink your decisions so you have the opportunity to stand on the right side of history. When I research
the similarities between our current administration, apparently our school board and authoritarian government takeovers, the parallels are very clear. What is the one difference? Our checks and balances basically our judicial
branch branch. If you choose to fire Matt, it will be glaringly illegal to do so despite you being able to do it with our administration right now. But eventually and at great cost to your taxpayers, he will receive justice for
it. >> Thank you. Anyone else want to say anything before we close this out? Thank you. Okay, we'll now move on to Tracy, Dr.
Tracy Miller with our school calendar 2026 2027. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madame Chair, Mr. Superintendent, members of the board. Tracy Miller, Deputy Superintendent, and I prepared for you a draft to begin con um consideration and
conversation around the planning of the school calendar for the 2627 school year. So, included in your packet, you received a copy of what I have also here on the screen. And if the board pleases, I can just go through the
um some highlights and let you know what's included with it and then open up for discussion changes and anything like that. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Okay. You're welcome. So the school calendar is that is prepared before you starts with the August. Sorry, scroll
here. August 10th with the first day of school. That is by statute in the state of Florida, the first day that we can start. I did check both St. Lucy and Palm Beach County have their calendars published and they are also looking at that date
as the start date. We do have we've talked to some the elementary principles and a change that you've noticed on here that is different from what we've done in the past is on the six. So prior to the first day for students having a kindergarten
curriculum night, something we thought would be very important is to invite kindergarten parents in to give them that opportunity to really see the classroom, hear what is scheduled to be taught and kind of how kindergarten goes, maybe alleviate those fears for firsttime parents who are coming into
the school district and for students on the 7th to be able to come in for meet the teacher for K5 and then also sixth and nth grade. Those are the times when our students transition into the middle school for the first time and into the high school for the first time. So to
give them that opportunity to ride the bus if they qualify for transportation, come onto campus, go through a modified school day, enjoy some lunch, and have an opportunity to kind of find their way around campus before all of the other students join us on the 10th.
Following that would be curriculum nights for elementary and middle. And we do divide those up or elementary, middle, and high. You'll see on there, we do divide them up for different nights because we do recognize that parents in our school district may have children in multiple grade levels and
multiple schools and we don't want them to have to choose which child's curriculum night they're going to attend. Would you like me to pause after each month or do would you want me to go through? >> You can just keep going until someone has a question. >> Okay.
By contract, the MCA contract includes six days that are specified for holidays. So those are indicated just for convenience in red. Labor Day is one of them. So I just indicated Labor Day and a one just means that's one of the six days when students and teachers
would be off. Then we right away hit the midpoint of the first nine weeks. And then this year Rashashana is on the weekend. Alo just indicated for really for staff and for planning purposes not to schedule events that night before we are requesting an early release day
toward the start of the school year. Early release is important to be able to look at student data especially at this time. We've got beginning of the year assessments happening and we also have professional learning that takes place for teachers and staff so that they can make sure that they understand the needs
of their students. And I was remissed by not going back and sharing that also per contract we have a certain number of teacher work days and professional learning days that take place before the start of the school year and those are indicated here in blue. Also, part of
the MCA current contract is an optional teacher workday, which is a flex day. And that just means that a teacher has the option that if he or she chooses to work on that flex day, the optional day, he or she could then choose to trade that out, flex that day for a different
workday throughout the year to be able to meet individual teacher needs. Then moving on to >> I'm sorry, Dr. Miller, what is the flex day? >> The flex day is >> No. What date is it? >> Oh, I'm sorry. It is July
30th. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. You're welcome. Uh then we have a non-school day on the 21st of September. And then moving on for the remainder of the first nine weeks, I did did indicate
FTE survey week. And just a little plug, we are currently in survey week for this year. It's very important if parents haven't heard that it is an important time for us to take an accurate count of the number of students that we have in attendance and enrolled in our school district. So really important for
students to be here that week. So we just have a little note to make sure that we don't have early release or days off during that time. And the end of the first nine weeks would end at after 43 days in October. You'll see that I do have some other
dates um indicated on the counter. That's just for reference for planning. So, Columbus Day is not one of the recognized paid holidays. So, that's why it's not a day off or a non-school day and is not colorcoded, but just for your reference as to when that would be falling next year. Then, we have an
early release day. Again, there's a lot of data, a lot of assessments, a lot of opportunity for teachers to really look at what their students need. So requesting an early release day pretty early on in the school year so that teachers can have that opportunity to adjust intervention groups to really
make good use of all of the instructional time and make sure that we're providing exactly what our students need based on the data that we receive. Progress reports, that is just our our technical name for report cards for elementary. So you'll see those listed.
progress reports for elementary and then report cards posted for secondary schools followed by the week later conference nights. We do typically try to rotate conference nights for elementary, middle, and high. But what we've learned through years of doing this is Thursday nights are really tough
for high schools because we have a lot of JV sports. So students, parents, teachers, coaches have a a hard time on Thursdays. So we have avoided Thursdays for any conference nights for high school. Moving on to November, just a note, the board
is very interested in making sure that our school district is um recognizing our veterans, their well-deserved recognition that they certainly deserve to be honored. And so, we'll make a note on the official calendar. When I say official calendar, I'm referring to this
what everyone's accustomed to receiving. So the one that you see before you is just kind of for planning and discussion purposes, but this would be the published calendar for parents. Traditionally, English, Spanish, kind of one-stop shopping, an easy convenient location for parents.
So we do um recommend Veterans Day to be a non-school day for teachers and students to be off. And we typically um have events that are scheduled here in Martin County to honor veterans midpoint
of the second nine weeks. Just um a point of note and we do plan to include on the calendar u maybe a little asterisk or information for parents to encourage them to check focus. We have a focus parent portal for anyone who's not familiar. It is the place that parents
should go frequently to be able to check up on student grades, attendance, everything that they would need to know. And so, especially at the midpoint of the nine weeks would be an important time for parents to be able to take a look, for teachers to check their grades, students to check their grades,
excuse me, and to ensure that they are on track. Recommending a week long for Thanksgiving break. There is two opportunities for emergency makeup days. We never know what the um what mother nature holds in store for us. So, an
emergency makeup day could be used for a hurricane makeup day. It could be used for any kind of other power outage or reason that we would have to cancel school and potentially makeup days. So, those first two days of the week provide an opportunity for emergency makeup days, followed by the day off prior to
Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, and then the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, ma'am. So, I noticed on your calendar your third emergency makeup day is after spring break. Um, so would the intention and knowing that November is early in
hurricane season, would the intention to be using would the intention be to use the first days for hurricane makeup dates if we need them to use the November dates? And that would be up to the discretion of course of the superintendent and the board to direct
staff as to when we would use them. But we wanted to provide options where parents were notified that this these would be the potential days should we need to be out of school for some reason and should we need to make up those days, these would be the days. And traditionally, we've done the sooner the better. So in other words, if we've
already missed a day prior to this time in the calendar, these would be the makeup days. And we've been very good in the past of notifying families pretty soon after an event happens as to when those days would be made up. But there are opportunities both semesters as you pointed out in case there are needs for
makeup days either semester. >> So um Superintendent Maine would the intention then be if we have an early hurricane in October to use the dates in November 1st. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to December. The last day of
the first nine weeks would be the 18th with winter break. Uh customarily it is a two-week break. This would give two full weeks if you count the days in no in December and moving into the New Year's Day holiday that is one of the official holidays. You'll see that
designated by number three. This does also um coordinate with both St. Lucy and Palm Beach County. I only mention that of note because sometimes we have families with students. We might have employees in our district with students there. We might have students just to be able to um keep our families
together. A teacher workday by contract. A teacher workday follows the first semester. So there is a workday on the 4th. Classes resume for all students on the 5th. Progress reports would then be posted.
Again, those are the report cards. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. That is a holiday. So that is listed as number four on January 18th. February again critical to all of us is the FTE survey week. And just to note
that the midpoint of the third nine weeks falls then there is no scheduled day off or early release. That is a full week for sure followed by the President's Day holiday and then professional learning day the next week. By contract we have four and a half professional learning days. And this is
a very popular and traditionally well attended day uh by teachers. We have in the past several years offered some really great opportunities. So thank you to our professional learning team for putting that together and really taking care and consideration into what is
needed to plan for that day. March the end of the nine weeks is on the 19th and then traditionally we have had spring break follow that natural break at the end of the nine weeks. So, spring break for five days. Good Friday,
just of note, happens to be on that Friday. And then we do have a day, and I I'll I'll share why I say kind of an opportunity to have a day off on that Monday, the 29th, to have a non-school day. And um to your point, an emergency makeup day should we need it. And I say
we have a day available because when we have the required 180 school days, you'll see with this calendar, we finish pretty early in May. So we would we could eliminate that day should you choose and finish a day earlier. Obviously there's lots of opportunity
for for changes. So does that create a um a situation as parents are looking ahead and as they're seeing that they have a a um spring break period that looks like it has that Monday off. By putting your day there
rather than by pushing it into April, does that create a situation where as you're making future plans, you would be making a plan that takes that extra day off. Um, was any consideration given to that? Whereas, if you had moved that
date into April, you have a better chance of it being a standalone day if you needed it as a makeup day. I just didn't know if that was something that you all considered. Sure, we did talk about that. We did also consider the interest of keeping families together
and looking at traditional times when families spend time together and looking at that particular weekend knowing that families might really appreciate an extra day should it be available to us that that was kind of the opportunity to have the day put there. And then again
just checking to see what our neighboring districts were doing to try to if at all possible if you're interested to have some continuity among the two. So, those were some of the the options that we weighed or the the rationale that we looked at. >> And is that what they're doing? They're doing a spring break with the Monday
after being off. >> I will double check, but I believe that that I recall that to be accurate. Yes, St. um St. Lucy County has that as a teacher work day on the 29th. So, students are off on that particular day.
And then Palm Beach in March also has a what they call a duty professional development day. No school for students on that day. So their spring break consists of six days, six school days.
And then moving into April, it's time again for those progress reports or student report cards and conference nights. It is included in contract that there are two nighttime conference opportunities. Again, we avoided the Thursdays for high school. So that's why you see them a little out of the kind of
traditional elementary, middle, high order. Early release, an opportunity for teachers to be able to finish strong. This is that opportunity for teachers to gather together in their professional learning communities to
assess students needs moving into planning for summer and also look at opportunities for test preparation and making sure that students have everything needed and scheduled as we have the what I'll call testing season coming up with end of course exams and
all of those opportunities to really show off all that they've learned during the school year. brings us into May which is a wonderful graduation season that time to highlight the accomplishments of all of our students. We did we have traditionally
rotated again trying to be fair to schools who graduates first, second, third among our three comprehensive high schools. Martin County High School, we did reach out to them. They have a unique program, the Cambridge program. We do not set the dates of student assessments for that program. They are
dictated by Cambridge in the UK. And we want to ensure because they have many um exams, we have had times when students may have had to come back for testing. We can assure that students um at Martin County High School in the Cambridge program will not have a test the day after graduation if they graduate on a
Friday. So the all the high schools were agreeable to kind of flipping our traditional cadence of who goes first, second, and third to accommodate Martin County High School to make sure that we wouldn't have students who might have to wake up the morning after graduation to take a a high stakes exam.
Then we have the opportunity for the middle um elementary school, excuse me, to celebrate students. A recognition would be on in the evenings on the 24th for fifth grade. On the 8th for I'm sorry, on the 25th for 8th grade. Again,
having two separate nights delineated because we know we have families who want to celebrate both their fifth graders and their eighth graders and not have to choose. Last day for students falls on the 26th and that is being requested as an early release day as an
opportunity for students to be able to and teachers to be able to finish grades, finish cleaning up their rooms with the anticipation that they would be teaching up until those final days, giving them that little bit of opportunity to close out the year strong
and then have their final workday on the 27th. and the flex day that I mentioned, some teachers will work the pre-day, that day that is in July, so that they could then have potentially that last day as a a day that they would flex for
that first work day. And that brings us to Memorial Day, which would be a paid holiday and gives us an opportunity to have a full month. We do have the requirement for summer reading camp for students in third grade. And we do also have the opportunity at times for
students who need some additional help in the summer to have a summer program. Allows us for some preschool planning for summer and then to have an entire month of summer school should we choose to do that. And again, report cards would be posted after the end of the
school year. And we let parents know that EOCC courses, we cannot post final grades because their EOCC, their end of course exam score is included in their final grade. So those scores get posted later. >> Dr. Morardi.
>> Yeah, it's okay if I give some feedback now. >> Absolutely. >> I think you did a really great job, Dr. Miller. Uh I love how you have Veterans Day off, so kudos there. Um I love how on winter break we have that extra day off. Very well done there. I like on spring break how it spilled over into
Easter and we have a little longer holiday there. So, great job there. And I love how our last days before Memorial Day. So, I appreciate those four things. There's just one thing that I just have a question about if this is flexible at all. The last day of school you have is
May 26th. Did you at all consider moving that one day later to May 27th? So that if you look back in the beginning of the year, instead of the teachers reporting on Friday, July 31st, they would instead
report on Monday, August 3rd, and give them an extra weekend and push the first day of school to Tuesday, August 11th, to give the students somewhat of a lighter first week to start out. Um, and the teachers would then get an
extra weekend there in the summer. Was that any consideration given to that? >> So there was conversation and when I say there's conversation, these are things that have conversations that have happened over the years as well. So this is always one of those topics. We definitely have those um teachers especially at the elementary school who
love a shortened first week. Kids come in, they've had the summer off, they come in, they're pretty exhausted, not to mention the teachers are pretty exhausted after the first week with everything going on. So that is we do have people who really like a shortened first week and then we have people who say let's just get in and and start
normal traditional a five-day week. The only um caveat to that is the interest in starting on the first day for students. We all in the state of Florida have the same window for assessments whether they be for I mentioned the Cambridge exams where we get the dates
for students for testing. We have the same windows for the state of Florida assessments. And so the the thought was to make sure that our students have every opportunity to compete at high levels and have the same number or similar number of school days. So if
they start on the 11th with other districts in Florida starting on the 10th, our those students would have one more day of instruction before their high stakes exam potentially than our students. So that was the tradeoff. So we can certainly start on the 11th knowing that others are starting on the
10th and just move a day like that. That's certainly up for discussion. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else have any comments? >> Um in the past we've had interims listed on our we not doing that anymore or so
that's a discussion we've had with our assessment and accountability office and I'm just moving to the midpoint of the nine weeks. So interrums really are a snapshot in time when we print them as we've done in the past past printing and posting them on parent fry
to say that parent focus portal when we pull those grades when we pull them that would be the grade right then but the grading periods a running grade book it continues. So what might be posted when a parent then looks in focus will often be something different. So you could
have a hundred as the grade printed on the interim because it was a snapshot at that day in time. But then when the parent looks in the grade book, if they got a zero on an assignment the next day, if they got a different grade, if
they missed an assignment, the hundred is no longer the grade. And that creates some um confusion for parents. You know, why did you tell me this is the grade? But then I look in the grade book and it's not the same. So the the the recommendation from the department was to alert parents and say it is that
time. Have have principles and our public information office send out some really good messaging to parents to let them know that it's time to look at your child's grades and help and take appropriate action at that time. >> So we would be counting on the PIO
department to be do taking care of the notification about interims. Is that what we're looking at >> the the recommendation is not to call it an interim but to let parents know that it's a midpoint and to let parents know to check their child's grades at that
time. So principles would be sending out messaging. We would note midpoint on the the calendar with the asterisk to say asterisk to say parents should be consulting the par parent focused portal frequently to check their child's grades
but specifically alerting at the midpoint. >> Okay. And um the progress monitoring piece, is there any um ability to put that overlay that into the calendar somehow so we know that this is when not
necessarily when the progress man monitoring pieces are being done, but when those reports will be available? Is there the ability to do that so that parents will know that my PM1 is now out? I can compare it to my PM2. I should be
looking at the same time. I mean, I just think that as much opportunity as we get to take our our parents who are partners in education to encourage them to look at the progress and to see where their child is, I think the better off we are. >> So, if I'm hearing correctly on this
calendar, you would like parents to have an alert that their PM123 testing should be complete >> and and the results available. I mean, not necessarily. I don't think I mean I know that we have our testing window piece is a whole different different document everything else but I think in
doing this calendar when I know that when report cards are coming and I know that interims even though we're not going to call them that the midterm piece is available I think there's some value to being able to say your progress monitoring one results are available for you to look at your PM2 results are
available for you to look at so you could have that and put that actually on the calendar and not be look into the PIO people to be pushing that out. I don't know if that has any value or not, but I think it would. >> Isn't there a minimum number of days
that you have to notify parents of the results of progress monitoring? >> We do have rules around the progress monitoring and we also, you've seen the um assessment calendar that comes before you each year. The state puts out their
uniform assessment calendar. We indicate the dates that we are testing within the required windows. So, we can take those dates. We can overlay and put them on here. I'm looking over at the team. They're saying yes, we can make that happen. So, we can indicate that on here as well to your point so that parents
are notified when those important results would come out when they should be we believe they should be checking the parent portal often and frequent. So, we want to alert them to that on the calendar, but then specifically at those midpoint, that midpoint time when they have an opportunity to really jump in
and make some some good changes. >> I think it's going to be really hard to um put on the calendar progress monitoring because the fir first PM1 is the first 30 days. So, some classes may do it in the first five days and some
may do it in the last five days and some may do it all places in between. It's going to be really hard. But I do believe and we should probably be making sure that those I think the progress monitoring report I know for the our littlest VPK students they have parents
have to be notified within seven days of the results and shared it's shared with the parents what those results mean and would the board be interested in having a link to that schedule because we do have we test different windows for
elementary high depending on what courses students are taking. So, it is kind of a lengthy list. Maybe if we did a a a hot link or something on there where parents can go right to the list of when those assessments are because I think it's also important for them to know when the assessments are taken and
then when the results will be available. Is that something of interest? So, Mrs. Powers, I wasn't looking necessarily for when the testing was going to happen because that's some flexibility and that changes. I was looking more for the hey the same way I
know that my report card's coming out on Wednesday whatever the day is I also know that my PM1 should be available on this day my PM2 would be available on this day am I that's what I was >> so you're looking at a a so depending on
when the test took place is your window will be different >> in the two then so it that aligns so you can have windows multiple times time. So, everybody's going to have a different window depending unless we want to um
you know make that uniform when everyone is taking PM1, everyone is you know so when all everyone's testing window is the same >> well >> or by grade or whatever but >> I think the most important part of progress monitoring is relaying the results and I don't think there has to
be a notification to parents. I mean it's not an option that we can just um put it on a calendar. Parents have to be notified of what their individual child progress monitoring results are. >> And how are they being notified now? Is
it just you have to go on focus to the parent piece of focus to see it? Is that what's happening now? So then are the principles telling the parents your PM2 is now available. Please go on focus and look at it. >> Yes. So, um, as a as a parent, I
received a notification on the cell phone. It comes through on the text alert, the push, which I think is why we're referring to the PIO's office, that your students test results are now available on the portal, which then the parent goes to the portal and looks them up. To Mrs. P's point, there's
overlapping windows. So you would have to wait for a window to end and then give an arbitrary date assuming that the state has released those for them to all go on at that at that moment. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> If I could go back to Dr. Morardi's question. Is the board interested in ending a day later and beginning a day later? Yes, I am.
>> Anyone else? >> Yeah. Um, so that would mean that the first quarter would have 42 days and the last quarter would have 43. Is that what that would change when I'm looking at your days by the
nineweek period? >> Correct. The first quarter would still end on the 9th with 42 days. So does it would decrease the first semester by a day. Is that what you're saying? And increase the second semester by a day.
>> Right. So that would mean that the first quarter, the first nine weeks would be our shortest quarter at 42 days. 42, 44,
51. And I guess I would look to the experts in the educational field to see whether um you whether instruction is I don't want to say of more value, but is it would you rather have the day at
the beginning of the year or would you rather have the day at the end of the year? I guess that's a a question for the academic people. >> Is this working? Okay, the light is not on. Yeah, at the beginning of the year it would be better. Ultimately, it is
not a significant difference because we teach throughout the year and so all of our um units are on that fullyear scale, but for the grading periods, a day on the front end or a day on the back end is not of significant consequence. But having it um at the beginning would be
helpful for the additional testing and back to school elements that we face. >> Thank you. So I therefore disagree with Dr. Morarity and think that we should leave it the way it's presented. Anyone else?
>> Okay. Keep it the way that it is. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Miller. >> Thank you. And this will appear on next in two weeks on the board agenda for official action. So, I'll make the changes as requested. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. Um discussion items. Martin County Legislative Delegation, we have a uh little platform here. Does anyone have any changes, additions, comments?
>> Um I'm just curious where did the um where did the And I just the elimination of the 10th grade ELA and algebra 1 EOC like where did that come from? >> I don't think that we've talked about
that yet. >> Okay, that's why I put it there because that seems to be where the legislature is moving toward eliminating. So I didn't know if we wanted to adopt that as well or do something different. I was just kind of gleaning information from
uh Greg Black and also on the legislative uh sessions what they're talking about possibly doing. If we don't want to go that route, that's fine with me. I just put it in there as more discussion for this topic. And I just
wanted to say I made an error. I didn't mean to say K through 12. I meant to say K through eight. And I noticed that for hazardous conditions for the second one, I mistold Miss Falls K through 12. I
meant K through eight because that's something also that they're looking into because of a lot of a lot of input from different counties that are talking about uh changing it even though it probably is
going to cost more money. But I didn't want to move away from your your question, Miss Powers. If we don't want to do that, that's fine with me and we'll just do the graduation requirements and concurrent scores. I just put it there because it was it was
a discussion that I had with uh Greg and uh he pointed me to the legislative what they were talking about possibly doing. So you whatever pleases the board. that I'd like to understand more about that
because I have I didn't really hear >> it never really came up I guess um >> there was some push on the house side >> right >> um or the senate side I'm sorry but the house was not coming along with that
eliminating those high stakes >> um >> to me it's like if we're if there are going to be eliminated are we going to need the concurrent scores because that kind of >> well I like I said I put it there
because of my discussions but we can remove that completely and just do the graduation requirement concurrent scores. I'm fine with that. I just wanted to bring it out as a discussive topic. And then as far as the hazardous walking
conditions that should be changed to K through eight. >> Is it K8 or K6? Well, right now it's K6. >> K6, >> but there's been a lot of discussion to make it to eighth grade because sixth graders are in the middle school,
>> right? Um, well, I'm really not I I'm I think hazardous walking conditions need to be um updated and we need to be looking because I'm I am an advocate for busing children to school. And however,
I am not interested in doing something if there's not money tied to it because we're it's just going to put us in a really bad situation if they change >> and maybe reduce the two miles to one mile. If they don't give us any money to
do that, we're already operating. >> Okay. >> Um overspending our allocation by three million >> dollars. So unless they're willing to do that, I don't think that that was that's something we
they should do unless they're going to fund it. >> Okay, >> that's my opinion. Like I said, I just put them out there because those were the some of the topics that I felt were important for us. So I don't I don't
know how you want to word it, but maybe just say if money's tied to it. I mean, that's pretty much blunt, right? That's we're not gonna we're not going to advocate for something that we're not getting money for. >> Right. Fully funded. >> Fully funded. So >> not an unfunded mandate.
>> So fully funded hazardous walking conditions to include K through eight. >> I think you can ask Black too exactly how we should word it. >> Okay. I will go back to him and then we can remove the uh the uh
algebra 1 and 10th grade and just talk about the graduation requirements and the concurrent scores on isn't it? >> Go ahead. Um, I would prefer to remove the update hazardous walking conditions for riding the bus altogether because I
think that what we have now is with the way that the rule says that it's already costing us $3 million extra to do that. Um, even if they updated it and said, "Okay, we're going to do it." And even if they gave us a little bit of money, it's going to expand that $3 million piece to four million or something along
those lines. Um, and I think that so that the cost to us is still going to be the same. I don't think I think that one of the reasons that when it comes up it doesn't get addressed and goes down the goes away is because of the high cost of
it. And so I I since I don't think it's a I think it's a non-starter. I mean I think there's some chatter around that but I don't think it's going anywhere. And I think even if it did even if they said okay you can do your survey and you can go up to grade eight for your survey and we'll pay you for those students.
It's just going to increase our cost from three million up to four or something. So, I would prefer to just take it off completely. Anyone else? Okay. So, basically we are left with um
the concurrent scores. If there's another um insert that someone would like to discuss, Miss Powers. >> No, I was just going to say I think graduation requirements kind of encompasses >> Okay. concurrent scores. It would
encompass if the legislature decides to eliminate the algebra one and the 10th grade ELA. >> Okay. >> For graduation requirements. So, I think we just >> So, that should be our focus. Our legislative focus is on concurrent or
just graduation requirements. >> Yeah. And I Yeah. And I just I really think that we have um a group of students every year that have met every standard. That's one of my They've met
every standard except they are maybe points me most of them that have been they're points away like a couple some are one point away on a a high stakes test but they have a
B+ or even an A GPA >> and we're holding them back. I'm not opposed to having other options for students to meet that requirement like adding, you know, we already have the
SAT, the ACT, adding back per which is can be done tested locally and they can do it, they can take that test more often. So, it's better to prepare. they can take it every seven days I think. So being able to prepare help the coaches
being able to prepare those students um I think is a better opportunity. So I've specific specifically would like to have the per added back in as um a test that they can meet that requirement. >> Okay.
Thank you. All right. Now, Mark Serest, Crystal Lake Elementary School. Oh, I skipped it. I'm sorry. Veterans Day proclamation. This would come in November, but I
wanted to bring it to the workshop because I'd really I don't want to introduce it halfway through November. So, does anyone have any comments, concerns about the proclamation? It'll
it'll go on the October First board agenda. Anyone have any comments? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Mark Serest, Crystal Lake Elementary School proposed addition options.
So, good afternoon madam chair, school board members, superintendent Maine. Um Mark Sris, director of facilities and planning. I'm going to present to you the Crystal Lake um discussion. We discussed this at the previous board meeting. I'm bringing forward additional information. I want to thank Carter
Morrison and principal Brenda for giving me additional data in this PowerPoint. Um we do have impact fee data listed and we do have survey data listed that was taken at the school. Um further down in this PowerPoint, um I'm going to jump to
a several slides down. Um, this is the school we're discussing so everybody in the public understands. It's Crystal Lake Elementary. Um, my next slide, which is slide five, I have these options for discussion. Again, I will take any other options that the board
wants to discuss with Crystal Lake, but option one would be to basically move um or actually hold on to sixth grade and keep it at Crystal Lake and we would convert four existing classrooms that are available for the sixth grade. Option two would actually be a version
of option one and two where you would keep sixth grade there. Um and then you would create a K8 at Crystal Lake. Um and then option two, you have the option to move in portables while the school's being added to for the K8. Um so that's
kind of option two. And then option three would be if the board wants to choose to do nothing at Crystal Lake and we can actually look at different options at different sites or we can choose to do nothing. But I'm totally open to whatever discussion you want and what other and kind of the variation of
options because if you look at slide um not to jump ahead but if you look at the slide um further down there's an options summary and I will go through that at a later point in time but it's kind of a combination of option one and two or again you do option three but again the
next slide basically I've broken it down into the options one the option one timeline and cost. So essentially what we're trying to do is convert four existing classrooms in the sixth grade only. That would be option one. Um and that time frame we would try to do this
work essentially prior to u March so that they could actually have people come by and tour the school and see the classrooms. Um and then I put an associated estimated cost of 99,000. um that covers the FFN that covers the
ceiling tile, the lighting, painting, and flooring replacement of those four classrooms. Um the timeline, like I said again, would be to do that prior to March. And if you decide to go with that option one, we would start that process of getting the appropriate furniture.
But at this point in time, the sixth graders could use the furniture that's in that classroom. But we would try to get um appropriate size furniture for six through 8 prior to August 1st if you choose to go that direction. Option number two is where it gets a
little more um intense with the school. Um we are proposing that you would basically add the K through eight campus, which means you would add six through eight. um you would essentially use four of the classrooms and in the beginning years for that sixth grade and
then we would bring in portables, eight portables to take on the grades seven through eight and then we'd have to go through a design phase um to take on the additional buildings. Um but a major point in that option is we need to we need to have it master planned. So at
the beginning if you choose option two we would have to basically approve that option of doing the master plan with the architect so that he can review SREF against the current campus and figure out what we can reuse and what we will need in addition to and my suggestion would be we would start that master
planning um around May of 2026 and then we would start that that basically takes a three-month process um and and then that would put us into September um where we review it again. And if you choose to move forward, we would have to go through the same process that we're
doing currently with Warfield and Murray Middle where we go through the RFQ process and then have the buildings designed um and then have a GMP and the construction documents. There is another option if I go to I can skip a little bit forward and come back. So, under the
option summary, as I mentioned before, there's an opportunity to do option number one only, which means you would move sixth grade to Crystal or actually retain sixth grade at Crystal, not move them. Um, and then option B I list there would be options one and two, except you
would you would not move in portables. You would only retain um sixth grade while you're building the new buildings. Um, and then option C would be option two with everything. So that would be with portables, that would be with the existing classrooms and you would be
building the additional campus buildings that are required for the K8. And then the last option is if you select to do nothing with Crystal Lake and you want to look at a different school site or you want to look at different options or you want to pursue this um at a future
date. So I'm just taking that direction from the board. It's totally up to your decision. But to go back to option two, just so you understand some of the numbers, um the furniture itself would be it's I got to read these numbers. It's around $79,000 for the
furniture and then it's it's around 117 or $137,000 for the front end of classroom for these portables. So we're trying to get the same classroom experience in these portables that we have in the existing classrooms. So you're looking at 216,000
plus or minus. Um and then if you go further down in talking with DOE, you know, we would have to do a new gym for for the um K8 and actually for the middle school, but keep in mind the gym would be used by K through8. It could be
used for the elementary school as well. Um so you're looking at a classroom building that's around 10 thou $10,500. That's just estimated numbers. Um, and then the gy the classroom building itself is $10,800.
Um, and those are just based on our current projects and the current square foot costs. And the reason I put the range in there from 22 million to 30 million, you still have additional costs of furniture. You have the site to deal with. Um, and then you have to pay the the A&E fees and you have to pay the
contractor fees. So, your number is going to be over that $22 million mark. um just so you understand where what the estimates are and these are really estimates because currently do we do not have a master plan. So not knowing fully um what's going to be involved to add to
that campus it's hard to put numbers too but these are rough numbers based on our current projects and it gives you a ballpark estimate of what this project would cost if you choose option number two. So option two continued. Like I said, we go through these planning phases. Our
goal is to basically um it would it it like I said, it would end up at the same process as Murray Middle and Warfield um where we would start that master planning in May. And then once you everybody would see the master plan and what's involved with creating a K8 then we'd have to go through the same process
of RFQS for the CM at risk and the A&E and then that's you know like a nine or 10 month process and then the GMP would have to be approved by the board. So everything would have board review and board approval if you do choose option number two. So as we move forward we actually got
survey data from from the principal. Brenda was able to provide that to me. Um, I will apologize in advance on slide 12 before we get there. The data actually got duplicated. So, in reality, third, slide 12 and 13 should have merged together, but it duplicated the
information. So, the last four bullet points on slide 12 are are duplicate information. They're not wrong information. They're just duplicated. But you can see here, um, the school did, uh, basically a survey with fifth grade and it was 50 out of 74.
Um, did I read that right? Yeah. So, um, it basically said, if offered, would you want your student to remain at Crystal Lake sixth grade is offered? And it was 38 out of 50. So, it's 76%.
If offered, would you want your student to remain at Crystal Lake 7th 8th grade if the option was available? So, that was 38 out of 50, 72%. Um, if offered, would you want your student to attend current home zone
middle school if not at Crystal Lake? That resulted in 23 out of 50. So, it was 46%. And then it said, if if offered, would you want your student to apply for school choice to attend a middle school other than your home zone middle school? And that was kind of low
at I can't read that number exactly. I think it's 18 out of 50, which is 36%. Correct. Um, so that was the fifth grade data. They broke it down into graph charts here, but I can expand on this or I can
go to the next level, which is uh the slide I've mentioned before. This is the fourth grade data where the data was actually duplicated in the last four bullet points. So it says if offered, would you want your student to remain at crystal like if fifth grade was offered and it was yes 37 out of 46. So it was
80%. Um and then if offered would you want your student to remain at Chris Lake as seventh and eighth grade was an option of available and that was a yes 36 to 46 so 78%. And then the remaining two bullet points in fourth grade were kind of the same as
fifth grade. If offered would you want your student to attend current home zone middle school if not Crystal Lake and it was 17 out of 46 37%. If offered, would you want your student to apply for a school choice to attend a
middle school other than the home zones middle school? And that was 19 out of 46, 41%. So those are the that's the survey data for fourth and fifth grade. They actually did some work on this next graph, which basically is the K through
three grade responses. Um, what grades are your current are your students currently in? You can see that graph. And then Crystal Lake Elementary survey information K through grade responses. Um and you can see their responses
related similar to the responses for the fourth through fifth grade. And then we come to the enrollment information. If we jump down to the to the next slide which is the current information. Um this is the migration
information that you guys asked and it's basically all the elementary schools and then how um how the students migrated into their middle schools as they left their attending elementary schools. And then at the bottom I show you where
these uh migration patterns where each school goes based on their zones. Um and I can take questions on that or I can keep moving but I'll keep moving through the slides. And then on the Martin County school district count information, we actually took a count on
um at the start of school and that's the very far right column. So you can see what happens when you take an attendance um number and then you add in the actual um ES and um I think what what it's called prek
prek is the right number. Um, so you can see how even though we're showing capacity, once you add in the ESE and preK, how that some of that capacity is used by those students. Um, but you can see what our a total count was recently and I've actually provided what it was
in the past five years. Um, these are the numbers I get I get from um, Carter now um, and Val. And then impact fees. So the impact fees you can see currently we are projected
um it's around that $6 million mark and what that is a roll forward from the previous years and then the current projected number for this this school year and then at the bottom um I have the graph showing the impact fees of what um what we have projected for use
on the next five-year capital plan and that's $16 million. And the reason I show these items, um, if you so choose to do Crystal Lake with a K8, um, there is a possibility you could use the impact fees and I would have to work with Carter to redirect some of these
funds to pay for that project. Um, because what I presented previously in September was if you use local funds, you can basically add capacity to this school without going through a DOE review. Um and once you go past those
boundaries then it requires approval from DOE. So these are the available funds we have using impact fees. Um I will kind of make a metal note for you. We we have the impact fees um projected
for projects but at some point in time we will have to use them and if we don't use them then we will have to return them. Um but right now they're projected to be used. we just have to either use them on on the projects listed on this slide or we have to use them for another
project like Crystal Lake if we're as if we're adding the K8. And then here again is the um discussions we had with DOE and and then we actually had our consultant um which I can provide you that memorandum if you want it from our consultant about impact
fees and basically stating that um we can use the impact fees across the district and not and we are not limited to the zone the impact fees came from from our from our u attendant zones or CSA zones as you know it.
That is the um end of my slides. I'm open for any conversations or direction you want to provide. Um so at this time I'm not interested in a complete K8 because I think that's um needs to be determined. I had a couple
comments. Um, I would be interested in adding a sixth grade and keeping those kids in sixth grade knowing that if they don't go to sixth grade if they don't if they stay in the district and they went to Anderson Murray or wherever um it would deplete the enrollment at by
whatever it the number is that stay there. So, that being said, my first question is your 40,000 for FFE. Um, could you take some of the furniture that's in the middle school that wouldn't be used? I mean, I think that if we have declining enrollment, we we
must have extra furniture or do we get rid of Have we been like hauling it out to the curb or >> No, it it stays in the classrooms. >> Okay. So, the classroom >> we would have to actually look at if we actually have empty classrooms or what
capacity each classroom is at each school to see what's available. It would take a full analysis of each classroom and where their current where their current attendance is for each grade level. >> Okay. And then my second question has to do with um the four CL if you did four
classrooms at Crystal Lake, do those four classrooms have whiteboards in them now. So they wouldn't need a new whiteboard. They wouldn't need the new technology, which is why your technology number is only when you're building a new building because you already have it there. So the technology number right now is only if we add the eight
portables, right? >> If we're trying to increase the grade levels, >> but for the less than 100,000, >> right? >> Um which is basically flooring, >> lighting, ceiling, >> lighting, that kind of stuffing >> in order to do that. Um that would be less than the 100,000. I I would also be
interested in either this year or next year or whenever to also look at other schools that have a gap in fish capacity to what the enrollment is including the prek number. So like I'm looking at um
say Jensen Beach Elementary, Palm City Elementary. I look at Palm City Elementary which has a fish capacity of 800 and it has including um prek it's got 625. So you've got 175ish
capacity at that school that that isn't being utilized. So I'm I'm imagining that you also would have extra classrooms in those schools. If I look at that one, if I look at Jensen Beach Elementary, if I look at
Seawind Elementary, um that's showing a fish of 764 and a including the preK of 477 that's pushing up to the thing. I I think that my feeling would be that um
the schools that I don't want to call them struggling, but the schools that are getting the extra attention, the schools that are the ones that are a C school or a title one school or those type of things, um I'm not interested in disrupting that. I think that is its own
issue that's going on. But I think if you're already an A school and you've got extra classrooms, if we have the ability to to hold on to kids for sixth grade um at a cost of less than 100,000, I would be interested in that. Thank you.
Anyone else? >> Well, I don't know. I don't know what to think about. Um I'm just not sure if it's the like if we just add sixth grade not knowing truly what the numbers are going to be because when you only had of
the fifth graders I was getting all confused. Hold on to fourth grade fifth grade. Um only 68% of the fifth grade parents responded. Um, so we're talking about 38
kids that would remain. >> Well, I think you had 50 that responded out of 74, I think, was the number. >> 50. Yes. 50 out of 74. And of the 50 that responded, 38 said they were
interested. >> So, we're talking, do we need four classrooms? Um, I'm just I don't want to overbuild again and then create a more of a capacity. Um, because then what that what what happens in seventh grade? I
mean, I guess I would want to know what the benefits are just for sixth grade and then they go into a traditional middle school or like what what is that? Well, and I talked to the superintendent about that and I believe that the
certification for elementary lets the teacher go to sixth grade. Is that correct? >> It's a K6 certification. So, you already have that piece in place. Um, I I think that
whether it's adding two classes or whether it's adding four classes, I think if you add the extra classes, if it's $100,000 to add four classes, I think you you set it up so that you see where the where the demand is. I mean,
let's say you settled in between and you said, "Okay, I'll add three classes and I mean, I'll we'll work on that." So, even if you had all 74 that stayed or you kept the majority of the 74 and you added some additional ones from out in the universe and brought those in,
>> um, and you ended out with a sixth grade class of 74 kids. I think a sixth grade class of 74 kids needs the the three classrooms and potentially the four classrooms. I think that's probably I'm thinking that's where you got your number from, >> right? >> My guess. But that's if every student
came or we had a max whatever your max capacity would be for the four classrooms. >> Yeah. And the trick is if you said, "Okay, well, I'm only going to accept X number of students. I'm only going to accept 66 students for sixth grade. Um,
if you're currently going to this school, you got first dibs on a seat in order to stay and it's the first 66 that sign up, you know, you could go in that route." I mean, I don't know if you ended up finding out in March that you
ended up with 74, whether Mark and his um people could scurry around and create the fourth classroom in short order. Um, but I mean, I think that when you look at the class byclass enrollment piece, I
mean, I think that it's I know that the money I know that there's the money that's in there in the five-year capital plan that we approved. There is the 100,000 that's sitting there. Correct. >> Um I think it's 100. It might be a little bit more than 100, but I believe that it's at least 100. Maybe it's 140.
I don't remember numbers really well all the time. >> Well, keep in mind with the with the four classrooms, you actually could I mean you're you could go up to a capacity of 96 students. >> Yes. >> So you could e you could easily say
everybody who's there can stay without any problem. But I mean I just think that um I think to dip our toe into the water to do that even if we said okay we'll try this this year and then at the same time instead of overstressing you all let's look at where we can go with
other places in the county that have that same gap. So whether it's Seawind Palm City Elementary etc. Um I think that >> I just get concerned that all we're doing is shuffling kids around. Yeah,
>> we are in in doing that in creating a situation where we have a K8, we're we're decreasing the enrollment more at our traditional middle schools. So then then what what with them? Like I know
so so I'm not at this point interested in the K8. I'm interested in expanding keeping the fifth graders for sixth grade. And I think all you've really done at doing that is you've taken um sixth grade classes at a traditional
middle school and you've relocated those classes to an elementary school. Um and I think um looking at the numbers with Carter before the num the students that we lose are typically middle school students. We go down in middle school, people are scared of middle school, so
they don't send their kids to middle school and then they come back in high school. So, I mean, at least if we got one more year out of it, if we got them for sixth grade, it's just relocating them. And I kind of when I talked to the superintendent, it was like, well, what would you do with those classrooms? Um,
and the discussion was, well, if you were, for instance, running a math class or if you were running a science class or something, you could take those that extra room and make it into a lab class. So, for example, if you're if um Amy's teaching a science class and I'm teaching a science class and we've got
an extra room, so we're both teaching science, but now we also have a lab room that we can be doing some science there or math there or that project-based learning or whatever it is from the various subjects. It gives us that flexibility in the traditional middle schools to do that. And then if you go
think a little bit further out of the box, if you had a school, say for example, it was um uh Steuart Middle School which is doing aviation. If you then partnered with um Stuart Jet Center and said, "Okay, we
can run ground school out of there." You know, we can let middle school kids start learning more, actually learning more about aviation and and doing that piece there. If you'd had um let's say it's Anderson Middle School where you now said, "Okay, what I want to do with
some of these extra classrooms, I want to make them dance studios. I want to make them into something else." And then using the PEP piece where you can get students that aren't currently with us. Then we're now trying to attract students that aren't necessarily our
students now, but they would come dip their toe in the water. See, this is what it is. You know, the data showed that um even though from an education standpoint, people think that parents of whether it's homeschool or pod school
children, what are they looking for if they want to go to a traditional school? And from an educator standpoint, everybody's thinking, well, they would want help in math or they would want help in English. And and we're thinking traditional subjects, whereas the data is actually showing no, they want the
stuff that they're unable to do. They they're perfectly willing to accept the math the way it is and the English the way it is, but they're looking for those the band class, the chorus class, the the more soft classes as an experience of something that they would have to go
out and pay a private firm in order to do. So, I think we have the ability to put those things into middle schools and maybe grab some more kids at middle school. >> Sure. Oh, go ahead. actually. >> Okay. How next? >> You're next. >> Thanks, Madam Chair.
>> I am more I mean, I'm not against the sixth grade adding that, but I'm more interested in seeing what it would be like to get new FTE from Port St. Lucy, all the building. We have several places that border that. Why can't we steal from another county instead of shuffling
around the kids that we currently have? Like I said, I'm not against the sixth grade idea. I just feel like there's a market there at maybe Citrus Grove where we could pull from, you know, kids that are going to be coming from Port St. Lucy where they're able to come and, you know, that's new FTE for us. That's
adding a whole new group of kids. Just a thought. Thank you. >> Yeah, I would agree, Miss Russell. As I said in previous meetings, uh you've got Newfield over there. You've got 4,200 new homes. I toured Citrus Grove Elementary and just kind of whispered it
around. What if this were an option to stay here and not have to drive all the way over to Hidden Oaks Middle School? And the excitement level, I can tell you, was real. So, I feel like that's the opportunity. If you look through these enrollment numbers, we're we're
20. We lost six kids outside of the district in 2324, one kid in 2425, and eight kids in 2526 out of Crystal Lake to a nondist school. I just don't see and I I feel like the people who filled
out the survey and said to uh we're probably wanting to stay for six because they're assuming it would be sixth, seventh, and eighth, not just sixth grade. So to almost tease them that like, hey, let's do sixth and then figure out the rest. The price tag for me 22 to 30 million still way too high.
I just I I'd think continue at it as it is. I would look at Citrus Grove Elementary. That would be a real opportunity and like Miss Russell says, it's right on the border of St. Lucy County and a lot of people already come down there from St. Lucy County. I think
more would. So, I I I agree with that because I would want to know the data that if when you asked the 50 parents or that responded, the 38 that said yes, did they say yes because they thought they
were going to get sixth and then you're going to add seventh and eighth or what if you just said nope, we're only doing sixth. Um, I I feel like there are growing parts of our county that we should focus more on.
um and not spend the dollars on I I just we have what 4,000 new homes coming into Indian Town. Um Warfield is bursting at the seams. Indiantown Middle is ripe to become a K8
because of capacity issues. I would not not support building a new school there um because there is so much capacity at Indiantown Middle. Um, I agree on our border our border schools, uh, Jensen Beach High School. Um,
uh, Citrus Grove. Uh, I also know like there's 10,000 new homes coming in off that people are going to be coming right into Palm City that Palm City Elementary could really capitalize on that as well.
I mean 10,000 homes that is they're going to have to come through Martin County to get on I95 or the turnpike. So I think that our Palm City schools are really ripe for that as well. And maybe even um Crystal Lake. I don't know
what's going to happen with um Story. That was the other big development that has still not been approved. Um but if that is eventually approved, that's at the four-way stop just past South Fork High School. Um
you know, Crystal Lake would obviously be in the positioned well um to start filling that school with those seats um with those children. I just the price tag is just I and I
don't know that I don't want to gamble even with $100,000 because I'd like to have more information on what parents would think if they were only going to get sixth grade. And it's it's a pretty expensive experiment when we already have a lot of
capacity in our system. Um, what I would like to see us do is look at all that capacity, look at what's happening, have an overlay of what's coming development wise so that we can prioritize what we
hit first. Um, I just don't know if I love the K8 model. I think it's a really great model. I think that it teaches K the uh older kids responsibility and um you know ushering
in the the younger kids but um I just think it's an expensive risk with not enough really good data. >> Superintendent. Um, if I I could, would the board be open to uh possibly having
staff research consultants? I I think as we move forward, we need to look at more long-term effects of those developments that are opening. We've been operating without a planner uh for quite some time. It's not been needed, but I do think at this point now staff um it is
going to require someone that has the geographic technology uh to be able to get with the developers and the community. Um you know, to figure out where those students and where that migration shift and where those layers
would occur in order for the board to make a strategic and sound uh decision. in my opinion, based on where you would want those impact fee dollars to be spent and and the energy that staff is taking to to put towards whatever it is
that you decide. Uh we can certainly uh work on that uh preliminarily and try to get that data for you. I just uh am concerned uh that staff is not at a place right now where we'd be able to get you the accurate data necessary to
to make that type of of a decision. Um, can I just when you said K6, so I know teachers are certified K6 is the sorted the elementary age. If we added a sixth grade, we wouldn't have to add a
gymnasium. Just if we add seventh and eighth, >> if you had a middle school. >> Okay. Anyone else? >> So my question is to Carter. if we had a consultant to figure out can that come from capital.
>> Yes. >> And I would also like to look at other options like um 612 um models that exist out there. um, magnet schools, um, you know, different
types of schools within the community because we, again, our middle schools are so under capacity that they that that doesn't require as big of a conversion as um, middle as an elementary to a middle with
infrastructure because the gymnasium and the parking are all pretty much already there. I think that that would lend itself to uh Superintendent Maine's point about possibly getting a consultant to kind of
get the lay of the land and look at all of our options and that that seems to be a good way to go if everyone agrees with that. Well, and we're going to have to make some decisions because we are with the
legislative changes in how um charter schools can now utilize public school property. So, we need to be planning what we want to do with our properties and um pretty quickly. >> Would a would a consultant uh be able to
give some information regarding that as well? That would be one of the parameters on underutilized facility classroom space numbers that are open. All of that would in in my opinion would be the complete package that we would present to the board to let you know
where we have space uh what it's currently or not being currently util you know used for and um different models to your request that could be presented and where the um
those models would have the biggest um bang for our buck if you Should it be at Citrus Grove Elementary? Should it be at uh Indiantown Middle School in Warfield? I think st we're just stabbing in the dark at something that we don't really
know uh is going to come to fruition. We hear all of this development, but uh we need we need expertise in in that area to really give you the data that I believe you need to make a sound decision. >> Right. So I think I think It appears
that a consultant is is our next step. So, however that works, >> we would bring it back forward to the board through our proper mechanisms to for you all to make a determination and approve >> right >> that or not approve.
>> I would like to say that I do agree with Brian and with Jen >> that um adding a sixth grade to um Citrus Grove whether it's four classrooms or whatever
would make some sense even without a consultant anything else just because of the number of cars that are >> and they and they do have available classrooms just so you know as well. >> Yeah, just thank you. Thank you.
>> Hey, we're moving on. >> If I could just circle back just just to close the loop. If you're looking at adding sixth grade to certain schools that have capacity, staff is ready and able to certainly deliver that
information to you if that's what you're looking at. If you are wanting information on 6 to 12 models and K8 models and which schools all of those would be better utilized for those and where the students would come from,
that's where I would advise that you allow us to move in the direction of a consultant. >> And I I would just say that as to what Mrs. Power said maybe we need to take the survey again with more
specific. If you're going to stay for sixth grade, are you staying for sixth because you think seventh and eighth are coming down the pike or is it are you answering yes just for sixth grade? So the schools that do have capacity I think a survey would be welcome to get
that information. >> Well, and I'd like to know what the capacity is. >> Yes. as well. And how many how many classrooms are vacant? >> Um, is it feasible to take a fifth grade and move them to sixth? >> I would I would want to do it knowing that we're going to add seventh and
eighth. >> I just Well, and it's it's also fish capacity and everyone also knows that just because fish capacity says that you can put 15, 16, or 20 students in a classroom doesn't necessarily mean
that's what we would do. It could be built as a resource classroom that is counting into fish capacity, but we wouldn't utilize that classroom for a regular standard classroom of sixth graders or seventh graders. So, it is very important that we walk those
buildings and know exactly which rooms are available when we say uh that we have that we have classroom space. Um, just so that we have all of that. Well, and if we shifted to something like an arts type of high school that really
focused on the arts like band and not not just band like marching band, but all different s symphonic band and all the other classical music and chorus and obviously they wouldn't be utilizing
classrooms the same way at like um Anderson Middle School say um that we wouldn't every class would not have students sitting at a desk all day long. So there would be separate so there probably wouldn't be as much room as we
think. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to schoolboard policies. I would like to note for everyone that the following policies are being pulled at this time. 6.02, 6.05,
and 6.14. So 6.01 01 standards of ethical conduct and I get a motion just just for discussion. Okay. And is there anyone in the audience that would like to say anything about any of these
policies? So there any discussion about any of them? So just as a note 7,400 is a resend even on for your spreadsheet Mrs. Falls. >> Just so you know that one. Um so I had a
question about uh 7101 which I believe >> 6.11 >> and >> yes >> 611 which is the building permits and code enforcement office. Um, and it says in that policy, even though it's just
reprinted down on page three about contractors, construction on schoolboard property, including volunteer service organization projects, shall be performed by state certified or licensed general contractors and subcontractors or locally registered subcontractors where their registration is valid as
required by SREF and shall follow the approved processes as described under Florida statutes. So, I know that um on some of our campuses, we've had this discussion before that we have um say at a ball field or
something, we have a a sign or a scoreboard that was put up by somebody. Um, so I is there a way or is um even though we are redoing this policy, is there the
ability to survey our sites and be sure which things are there that didn't go through this process? I know that we discussed particularly I think it was Martin County High School having a a sign or something that um just
showed up. I I and I don't know, for instance, um at Martin County High School, the the signage thing in front of the swimming pool that was I'm not sure that was put up by somebody who was licensed or whether some people were out there at midnight digging holes and
putting in 4x4s and and making a a thing for themselves. But I think that as we fix this and as we're going forward with this policy, we probably need somebody in facilities to do a survey of each campus just to be sure that there aren't
things that were done by outside groups or somebody that haven't been looked at. Any other? It's the only one I had. No. Okay, it is now time for open to the board.
Go ahead. So, I did want to talk about the new grading scale. um the issue that we've we've seen a lot on social media and I'm going to be honest I in good conscience
cannot I do not think it's a good idea for us to be giving a 50% to students that turn in nothing um if if a student is making an effort and I totally agree on the it's very hard to recover from a zero depending on
what it's on and how how your grades are weighted uh in that class, but just do nothing and get a 50%. Or someone could do something and still get a 50%. How how fair is that? Like I just
I think it's um I think it's not a good thing that in particular. >> I do too. Go ahead. >> So um so I answered the gentleman who spoke today and open to the public who sent an email out. I answered him and
it's a mathematical computation. When you're converting a 100point scale to a four-point scale, it's purely math. So there's three ways that you can do grades. One is ABCD or ABCDF.
The other one is the four, three, two, and one, and zero. The other one is doing a percentage, a percentage of 100. But if you Google um conversion of a 100 point scale to a four-point scale, it will show you exactly what you're
supposed to do. That if you if you give it a zero, that a zero um that an F an F on a fourpoint scale is different than an F on a 100 point scale. But if
you'd like to send you that the email that I sent him or if you care one way or the other. Um but it is purely a a mathematical conversion from a 100 points a 100 point
scale to a four-point scale. So >> yeah, I mean this is definitely an issue for me as well. Um and it's it's very unclear to the public and it's hard to explain. So um I reached out to the superintendent and uh Dr. laws and I was
wondering if maybe they could help explain this because I know part of this is Florida law and part of this it's very vague. So is it possible we could hear from either of them to help explain this a little bit better to the public and see if there's any merit there?
>> So let me just give you a little bit of background um information and I'm trying I'm not going to try to get as bogged down. I think this is going to probably result in a in a follow-up followup. Um, but the what you all are talking about has been
in place now for a couple of years. This was board approved uh close to three years ago. Uh, this is not new. Um, it is a conversion uh based on what Mrs. Roberts said. What I will also tell you as a board and what the community needs
to know is that uh you all didn't just arbitrarily come up with a policy. Uh this was there was a committee that was put together uh that comprised of our union president along with uh a representative from every single school. I believe we used our former teachers of
the year representatives at each school site in addition to multiple members of the district office staff uh in the academic department and the assessment and accountability department that met over uh many weeks to look at best practice to look at research to look at
what the the the fairest conversion would be to look at Florida statute and what other districts across the state of Florida do. We are not the only district in Florida uh or across the nation for that matter that are that are using this this scale or this conversion. where I
think this has bubbled up to the surface uh recently is that we had we have asked all of our principles uh in light of the end of the nine weeks coming up to go through and run checks of teacher grade books because we have many teachers across the district that are not putting
in the appropriate number of grades by category which is significantly impacting a student's grade when a parent logs into focus to review their student's grade. There are many cases where there might be only one grade in the grade book and it may be a test
grade and it is significantly impacting the student's grade. Uh one, it's not in compliance with policy. It's not in compliance with the student progression plan and principles have started to monitor uh that their teachers are putting in these grades. This has
resulted in updates to grade books, making sure that that's being done, and teachers that I think have gotten a little frustrated over a policy that they were not aware of that has been in place for a couple of years. Now we can say that it's on the teacher to know or
we can say that it is on the building principal and the assistant principal to have made sure that their teachers understand what our grading policy has been as a school district and what is required. I believe that had this been monitored and have been closely
monitored over the last couple of years, you wouldn't feel this bubbling up. Um, I am open. We certainly are open to bringing back the team to continue looking at whether or not our practice
is uh sound and whether it does need to be changed. We're definitely not closed off to that. But I do want the public to understand all of the grading that was done last year, all of the grading that was done the year before was all based on this
board approved scale that was brought forward by an entire team of teachers, including the union president uh who sat on that team. So this wasn't just something we did. this was this was worked through uh in alignment with what
we felt was best um for this for this conversion. Um so I'm open to the direction from the board and we certainly can get the team back together to decide if we need to move in a different direction. >> Yeah. Can I just rebuttal that just one thing?
Um because I did get an email today like other board members did uh about a situation where students were taking not doing an assignment and just taking the 50 out of it and doing no work. And I think that that has to be addressed where you have students that are
willingly not taking an assignment because it's not as harsh of a penalty anymore. I I I think we need to take that into account. I understand the system and I I get that, but that situation I don't think is productive for students. So, I I think that needs
to be addressed. Thanks. >> I was going to mirror that. I don't think a student who sits in the classroom and knows they're going to get a 50 should be getting it. It's wrong. It's wrong to give a student who's not
making any effort. Now, I understand if they master the material, that's one thing. But if they're just not working, I don't believe we should be giving them the opportunity when they're not putting in any effort at
all. So, I think there has to be some sort of language that gives the teacher latitude. If the student is absolutely not participating and just waiting for their 50, that needs to be dealt with separately, then the student who tried,
who put in the effort, we're not going to give them a zero. We're going to give them a 50 because they did try. They did do some of the work, but not doing any work at all. No rewards for that. So I will I will just and I will talk about
this cautiously because this is in no shape, way or form systemic uh and it is no disrespect to teachers but every teacher has a different philosophy. And so what we just have to make sure is that there is consistency across the
board that when the gentleman uh that talk spoke at public comment talks about there being multiple opportunities for students to do grade repair and multiple opportunities for students to make up work if they were absent. that that is
in fact being enforced and that students are in fact being given those those chances because we we have heard um on occasion that that that is not the case. uh zeros are going in the gradebook and and the zero is sticking. And then when
a student tries to uh turn themselves around and turn in an assignment or attempt to make a change in their behavior uh or in their work ethic uh there they cannot recover. Um and so there this is it's the balance. It's
twofold. But I hear I hear where you are and >> we will certainly >> Right. So I think a lot where a lot of confusion comes in is like are we going to do percentages or are we going to use a four-point scale because that the way
that this grading is working and I know parents that we went through this with standardsbased grading and I know the goal is mastery at the end and I I just I cannot in good conscience
allow students to not put in any effort and What what consequence is there for teachers in the classroom, for students who are disruptive, who don't participate, who don't complete their assignments, and then you have the
majority of the classroom that is doing the work. And you know, maybe you do have a struggling student that only got a 50, legitimately got a 50. What then? The kid sitting next to them that is disruptive and didn't do anything is
still going to get a 50. I that is not right. That's I So I don't know how we balance that scale. >> Well, I mean could there be an option where you have okay they're late. Day one we're knocking 10 points off. You get a 90. Day two you get an 80. Day
three 70. And then at some point you cut it and you say look you're five days late on your work. You do get a zero. You've earned a zero. We've told you you've had five days. You've earned your zero. That sticks. Just feel like I do understand. kids are late. I do understand that things happen, but it is
disheartening to kids who are trying and they're putting in the work and they're like, "Okay, I got a 50." And, you know, maybe they struggled with a certain concept. Maybe they've had 90s or, you know, A's on everything else. Then they bomb something, get a 50, and it's hard
to rec recover from. They're having to, you know, work hard to get it. But then you have this other person in the classroom who's like, "Well, I don't really care. I'm not even going to bother to do it because I'm going to get a 50 anyways." I don't know if there's like a a happy medium with that. >> So, it happens in some cases. Um there
are teachers that are doing that and so what I would just advise is that we make it we spell it out and we put it in the student progression plan what we want to have happen and what we expect to have happen. So, um I am I hearing from the board that there would be some direction
to move away from the scale and go to pure percentages because if the team gets back together again, they need to know uh if I grade this and you got a 45%, you got a 45% on it and that's what's going in the grade book for that because you have weighted categories and then you have what you would have gotten
on that assignment and based on what that assignment is, it's then plugged into that category that is weighted at that percentage level. I I don't think you can go to um you can't use the percentages
for a high school student that needs that is use that is using the fourpoint grading system. So I think that the solution in my head would be instead of entering a 50 or a zero or whatever it
is is entering 4321 or a zero. So that if you didn't do the work, you're getting a zero, but you're getting the zero on the four-point scale. An F on a four-point scale is a zero. I think if we went to that
direction, um what you should be doing is you should be adding the plus and minus piece to it so that all A's are not considered equal. Our A for our district of course is better than anybody else's A. Just saying that. So we would be able to have an A+ and an A
minus. So you would have some delineation inside those four points. But but I think mathematically you cannot just go to that pure percentage piece and come up with the right scale
when you get to high school. I mean it just doesn't mathematically work. There's all I mean if you Google it if you Google the conversion from the percents to the fourpoint scale to the 100 scale to the four-point scale. I mean it's all there of exactly what happens. So the problem is they're in
between assignments are being graded on a how many out of 10 did you get? Did you get eight out of 10 right? What percent did you get out of the hundred? They're being graded that way and then we're having to convert. So if you really wanted to do it in the pure sense
so that you're now competitive and you're dealing with the what the whole rest of the world is doing with a four-point scale, you need to give everybody grades based on the 4 3 2 1 and zero. But in college when they have the same grading, they have the plus
minus and we have to be very careful because when we implement a plus plus minus system and everybody around us isn't doing that um it puts our kids at a disadvantage when in their GPA calculation. So, just I'm just putting
that out there because there certain um Florida colleges for a while, one of the major universities was not using only using a plus and not a minus, but other schools were using the plus and the minus. So, it put those kids at a
disadvant advantage when they went to apply to graduate school because their GPA were lower because of the minus. Um, >> right. And the only reason I would think that you would use a plus minus is on interim work, not on your final grade. Your final grade is still
>> in college. That's how they do the fourpoint scale. Like if you make a B minus, you get a 2.75 is your point scale point. A B+ is a 3.25.
It's you assign the points based on the percentage of your grade. The still the zero to 50 is still an F. So if you get an F, you get zero points. You get zero to 50, you get zero points. >> Okay. >> And depending on scale, that's what you should be getting. A fourpoint scale,
you get a zero for that. Yes. >> But when there's a grading scale and then there's the conversion scale for your GPA, which is based on plus, minus, and the points assigned to each one. So it doesn't matter if you could have a if
your scale is 93 to 100 is an A plus or an A probably not a plus just an A. If you have a 92 you're you're docked >> you know like it's brutal.
>> Yeah. I think >> it's the way it works. >> Bring it back. Okay. >> Yeah. And I don't want to over complicate this either. I I think you were talking about a specific issue with with and not overhauling the whole grading system. So I think we should
because we trust you and the work your team does. So I want to give respect there. But >> so we don't have to come back with an entire new grading system but just >> focus on focus on that piece. >> Yeah. Would be how to how to rectify that issue. >> 50 for doing nothing. I think that that
we kind of all felt the same about that. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else in our open to the board? Okay, I'm going to adjourn this meeting. We will take a 10-minut break and then we will come back for our special
meeting. microphone. Sorry. Calling this special schoolboard meeting of Martin County to order. Um, Miss Falls, will you call the role, please? >> Dr. Morardi,
>> here. >> Mrs. Roberts, >> present. >> Mrs. Powers, >> here. >> Mrs. Russell, >> here. >> Mrs. it >> here. >> Hey, I'd like a motion for the approval of the agenda, Miss Powers. >> Um, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Um, moving open uh public
comment to before the action items. >> Okay, that would be great. Can I uh second? I have a motion by Miss Powers, a second by Miss Russell. All those in favor? >> I >> I motion carries unanimously. So, I'm going to read the public comment
again. We have three speakers. Citizen input is vital to the improvement of our district. Most times, your remarks may be listened to without comment from the board or superintendent. This does not mean they are heard with any less intensity or concern. Where appropriate, the
superintendent and staff will investigate your comments and report back to you and the board with an answer. We thank you for taking the time and having the concern to make our district better. Your presentation to the board should not exceed three minutes. Letters or statements from others not present can be given to our
clerk who will be sure that each school member, school board member, and the superintendent receive a copy. To keep our record straight and authentic, our policy does not permit you to read the statements of others into the record. First up, Andrea Dixon, followed by Sam
Fandino. Good afternoon. Good evening. It's after. Freedom of speech is the right to express your ideas and opinions without government censorship or retaliation. However, with the evolution of social media, freedom of speech is no
longer free. We have trolls and outside agitators that are waiting to pounce on our statements and 90% of them don't even reside in the area where that statement was made. Mr. Theob was a d is a dedicated member
of our school system. 17 years of education and helping to prepare students for life outside of those four walls. I don't believe that his personal opinion should be used as a weapon against him. There are more pressing matters within the education system such
as pedophiles in our classrooms, protecting our children from mass shootings, retaining teachers in this county and in this tri county area. Should there be some form of punishment? Definitely. Sensitivity training
suspension. But to take away his livelihood, no, that's not possible. What's next? school uniforms for teachers, polo shirts and khaki pants for everyone in the classroom with no exceptions. I urge you to think long and
hard about how far and what the long-term effects of this one decision may potentially cause future educators, current educators. They may decide to no longer teach. Can we truly afford to lose any teachers
in this area? Just think about that. Thank you Sam Fandino followed by John Jacum Jookum. >> Hello again. Uh I just you know I think
I had everything I had to say that first time but I thought I would just come up here again and and really ask you guys to consider very deeply what you're going to be doing to the kids that sit in this class that look forward to to going and seeing someone that they look
up to that they care about, you know. Um, and think about what message you're sending to me. I sat in class, hidden oaks, eighth grade. I took civics with Miss Good Schmidt. I remember learning the first amendment. I distinctly remember the flash cards I had to make.
I remember it. And it appears to me that if you do what I fear you're about to do, it would go against what you've taught me. And that is a a level of hypocrisy that that I think would would really harm the reputation of a district
that I actually love. The campuses are great. I've never had a bad teacher. This district has been supportive and I think it would be a blemish on a really wonderful, you know, high school experience for me at the end of the day to do this to Mr.
Theopol. So I I just ask that you really think about what's the example you set for the people that are passing through here. Um, yeah, that's all I got to say. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Sam.
John, followed by Martin Powell. >> My name is John Jook. I'm a lifelong citizen. Grew up with Miss Dixon. Our mothers taught at the first integrated school in Martin County. It was Murray 8th grade
back then. David Anderson was there. And the person that became Jeb Bush's lieutenant governor was there as well. As it relates to this topic, I gave you an alternative which I thought would be fair.
But in life, as Tony Robbins says, you get what you tolerate. You get your standards. You get your musts or your have to. You will decide if you can tolerate someone that glorifies a school shooter.
No matter what your decision is, you're immediately after it, you should review your strategic plan and values. In that, you will have student safety. It was mentioned that you are the school district that has the number two mass
shooter killer in United States of America. As a student, you will address your value of student safety and student wellness in your strategic plan, stating or you should state that that was a
previous student and how your values would change with this decision. If you tolerate a teacher that glorifies a school shooter, are you welcoming that back here? You will make that intelligent
decision. Your lawyer is going to the alternative I said don't stop your teacher's cash flow. Let the teacher teach in the prison system or jail county for two years. Pay your teacher. Make sure you don't get sued because
your citizens are talking about the day in court. I do not think you should stop your teacher's cash flow. This is a win-win alternative. But you should not tolerate a person who glorifies a school
shooter if they teach in a school. That that would be less than intelligent. Optically, this is just wrong. Since you are the school district that did produce the number two mass shooter killer in United States of America, you have a
hard decision to make. The shoot the teacher has the right to say what they want. You have the right to enforce your standards, your values, choose wisely, and address your strategic plan and your values of
student safety after your decision. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Martin Powell. >> Good evening. My name is Martin Powell. Um, I don't know if I'm going to get an opportunity to address two agenda items. So, I'm going to hear be here to represent Matthew Theobald. Um, before
that, first, let me be very clear. This was not glorifying a school shooting. This was not violent. This was not dancing on the grave. This was not celebrating violence. This is none of that stuff, right? To be very clear about this. Um, that's not what we're talking about. And I don't know what to add to all the speakers have already
said. They've addressed the strange process that superintendent has already given a five-day suspension. Now, we're here to give another suspension. and then later I guess we'll come back for a termination. It's a very strange process. We look forward to fighting about it in court if that's where we come to. But the benefit of it is you
have an opportunity to consider this to actually listen to the constituents that showed up here rather than those from other states who did not who made a big deal out of about this at the media um or in the social media not the media, right? Um you know I think that I think
that there are a few things that are very clear in this case, right? We have the normal termination issues of seven tests of just cause. Um whether he was provided fair notice. We've had speakers talk about that. Whether the the the rule is reasonable being applied fairly.
We've had speakers talk about that. You have other educators, board members, and others who have said things online that have had no consequence. For some reason, Matt Theobald has the consequence of termination. Right. We have progressive discipline that's been discussed here today. a 17-year teacher
whose students came here to speak on students, whose parents came here to speak about parents, and whose colleague came to speak about his experience in the classroom, never having once an issue in that classroom for 17 years, teaching civics, teaching history,
touching on topics like fascism, uh, communism, and issues that could very well present an opportunity for someone to share their political views. But did he? No, not for 17 years. Right? So we have these issues, these normal
discipline issues just cause principles of professional of sorry principles of progressive discipline that this does not comply with. But bigger and more important than that is the policy that you're setting for your your employees.
This is a first amendment issue. It will become a first amendment issue if it hasn't already. Right? You have an opportunity to step in and stop that. It's it's not a violent it's not a violent it's not celebrating violence. It's none of those things, right?
Is a public figure, an issue of public interest. Charlie Kirk is clearly that. Mr. Theobalt has a right to express his opinion. What you're looking at and what you you're purporting to act on is the disruption to the district, the disruption. But the investigation just points to Facebook comments. It doesn't
point to actual disruption. So, I'm asking Mr. Mr. George and this board to talk to your lawyers about what this actually looks like. Talk about the the actual impact of what's called a heckler's veto, allowing the mob to
dictate the response rather than the conduct to dictate the response. Don't don't make this worse. Please don't make this worse. >> Thank you, Mr. Powell. Our first action item is 3.01 suspension without pay up to and through
pending termination hearing. I'm going to defer to Mr. George to explain it a little more clearly. Thank you. >> So under school board policy, the superintendent has the right to suspend pay over any employee who's facing a
disciplinary process. Superintendent Maine did that. He does not have the authority to suspend pay beyond five days. He has to come to the board as soon as practical to have the board decide that this is not a decision on
the disciplinary process. This is the superintendent coming to the board requesting the board to continue the suspension of pay. That decision is in your discretion. If later there is not a termination then
the employee will be fully paid and compensated. The there are no necessary findings. This is your discretion whether to approve Superintendent Maine's recommendation or not to approve it.
>> Thank you. Okay. Action item suspension without pay up to and through pending termination hearing. May I get a motion? Okay. Seeing none, the item dies. >> Um, Madam Chair, I I move to approve the
superintendent's recommendation. >> Okay. Can I get a second? >> Second. Okay. I have a motion by Dr. Mari, a second by Miss Powers. All those in favor? >> I. >> You want to? Okay. Sure.
>> Um, so just so I understand, if we're suspending without pay until the termination hearing, when will the termination hearing be happening? May 1st. >> Uh, it is I will defer to U. Mr. George, but it is now in the employees uh hands
to request a hearing. >> That's correct. >> And has that happened yet? >> Uh no, no, ma'am. A request for a hearing has not been has not happened. >> Thank you.
>> So I have a motion by Dr. Marity, a second by Miss Powers. All those in favor? I I motion carries unanimously. 3.02 requisitions to be approved for purchase orders over $100,000. May I get a
motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Power, second by Dr. Mari. All those in favor? >> I >> I motion carries unanimously. >> 3.03 202526
tenative salary agreement with MCEA and teacher salary increase plan. Jeffrey Raymond Carter Morrison. >> Can I get a motion? >> I move to approve 3.03. >> Second. >> Motion by Dr. Mararti, second by Miss
Powers. All those in favor? I. Motion carries unanimously. Open to the board. Anyone? Okay. With that, this meeting is adjourned.