Is Lake County School Board Chair Debbie Stivender intentionally cramming Board meeting agendas with lots of presentations to prevent public input or attendance to hear discussions.

Tavares, FL May 10, 2015

Are Lake County School District Board meetings being manipulated to avoid
discussion of business issues by filling agendas with non-business issues?

The Lake County Board usually only meets for a formal evening meeting twice
a month, thus you would think they would focus on District policies and
business issues, but they don't. They do have afternoon meetings where more
details are discussed, but most working parents cannot attend to listen and
give public input.

Most of the evening meetings are wasted with non-business presentations for
this 40+ school district with 45,000 students. Rarely are there
discussions how to improve individual schools that are low ranked, etc.
Instead, most of the meeting is a dog and pony show with very little
substance.

At 6pm, the regular Board meeting will be at the Lake County Administrative
"round" Building in downtown Tavares. However, almost everything on the
agenda is a "consent" item, meaning they won't discuss it.

Additionally, Chair Debbie Stivender keeps filling the agenda with MORE and
MORE non-business presentations of awards to teachers, students, parents,
groups and gremlins. This wastes the time of anyone waiting for business
issues on the agenda. The agenda for this meeting includes ALL of the
following presentations which could take an hour or more. So it means you
give public input AFTER waiting for all of them to be completed. If you
think Stivender is doing that to waste time so people won't wait to give
public input, ask your School Board member why they allow such delays.

Here is what is scheduled at the beginning of tomorrow's meeting before any
business discussions.
Everyone has to sit through all of them before being allowed to give public
input or hear ONE business item being discussed.

First, there are the "opening items": These vary in length. One student
rep took 30+ minutes before, since there are no caps.
1.01 Call to Order - Followed by a Moment of Silence and the Pledge of
Allegiance (Debbie Stivender, Chairman)
1.02 Introduction of the Student Representative from Umatilla High School,
Hannah Faircloth (Susan Moxley, Superintendent)
1.03 Introduction of the School-Related Employee of the Year Finalist,
Sharon Woolbright from South Lake High School (Susan Moxley, Superintendent)
1.04 Introduction of the Rookie Teacher of the Year Finalist, Lauren
Blackburn from Pine Ridge Elementary School (Susan Moxley, Superintendent)
1.05 District Highlights (Susan Moxley, Superintendent)

Then there are the "Representations" or presentations of awards and
certificates - this many could take one hour to sit through. It also
requires 100 or more people to travel to the meeting and sit to get a
certificate.
4.01 Presentation of the Gold and Silver School Awards (Carman Cullen-Batt,
Executive Director of the Educational Foundation)
4.02 Recognition of the Scott Strong Memorial Scholarship Recipients (Carman
Cullen-Batt, Executive Director of the Educational Foundation)
4.03 Presentation by Bank of America to Take Stock in Children (Carman
Cullen-Batt, Executive Director of the Educational Foundation)
4.04 Recognition of the Tavares High School Students who placed in the 2015
Congressional Art Competition (Dr. David Christiansen, Chief Academic
Officer)
4.05 District High School Athletic Recognition for Outstanding Achievement
(Dr. Marilyn Doyle, Chief of Administration)
4.06 Recognition of Regional Scholars (Dr. Marilyn Doyle, Chief of
Administration)
4.07 Recognition of Superintendent's Reading Challenge Winners (Dr. David
Christiansen, Chief Academic Officer)
4.08 Recognition of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) Schools (Dr. David
Christiansen, Chief Academic Officer)
4.09 Recognition of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL Family
Night Sponsors (Dr. David Christiansen, Chief Academic Officer)
4.10 Recognition of Career and Technical Student Organization National
and/or State Winners (Dr. David Christiansen, Chief Academic Officer)

We are all for awards, but let the Board visit the schools and given them
out rather than taking up the time of the official business meeting of the
Board.

Only after the above items or perhaps 90 minutes elapsed, are the public
allowed to give public input on an agenda or other item. They also are not
allowed to give it later during actual discussions of an item. Thus if a
staff presentation brings up a point, the public is not allowed to provide
comments when the issue is discussed later in the meeting.

But WAIT, there are more non-business items.

NEXT is Section 6, "Reports", where now we hear from several people and
groups. There are apparently no time limits, because one student rep
previously spoke for over 30 minutes and Chair Stivender did not request he
end it sooner. So, these reports delay getting to business issues for
perhaps another 30 minutes:

6. REPORTS
6.01 Report from the Student Representative, from Umatilla High School,
Hannah Faircloth
6.02 Report from Sharon Woolbright, School Related Employee of the Year
Finalist
6.03 Report from Lauren Blackburn, Rookie Teacher of the Year Finalist
6.04 Central Florida Public School Boards Coalition Meeting (Rosanne
Brandeburg, School Board Member)
6.05 Educational Foundational Report (Carman Cullen-Batt, Executive
Director)
6.06 Attorney Report (Steve Johnson, School Board Attorney) <<<< This
is rare, but he discusses business issues.

So, after all of the above, we get to the Consent agendas.

This week there are 36 items on the consent agenda which means they won't be
discussed unless a board member "pulls" them for discussion.
It also means once they move to "approve" all the consent items, they are
officially approved. A few might have been discussed at a prior workshop,
but not all.
TIP: If you want to discuss one of these consent items, ask a Board member
to have it pulled for the Board to discuss. Remember, Chair Stivender will
not let you talk at the time of discussion, but only back at the earlier
public input portion of the meeting.

What are some of the 36 consent items that the Board should discuss in
public, rather than automatically approving without public discussion at the
meeting?
- Item 8.02 - There was an extensive audit of the School District by
the Florida Auditor General, but the Board will not be required to discuss
it and recommendations in public at this meeting where it is approved. Most
attendees will not have seen or heard earlier presentations on the audit.
What is the status of the recommendations? What has been implemented or
resolved? The CFO handled the audit, not the District auditor, and the
report is not on his page.
-
-
-
- - An audit of a booster club found huge problems with lack of
receipts

We also notice that almost every agenda business item is NOT discussed
because they are on the consent agenda.

Is that a tactic to make the public think work is being done, when business
items are NOT discussed?
Is the Board intentionally avoiding discussion of key issues when the public
can come to the evening meeting?

So, after wading through all the presentations, what ARE the business items
in the agenda?

Vance Jochim