A W1 To: School Board Members ?a From: Frank A. Barbieri, Jr. 31V Date: June 19, 2019 la Chairman's Report Good evening Board Members. As you will see when you review the listing of the meetings and events I have attended since our last Board Meeting on May 1, I attended all but two of the high school graduations held at the fairgrounds in May. As you can imagine, that meant I spent entire days there on those days where there were three graduations. As a result, I got to see first-hand the time and effort that several individuals contributed to ensure that our graduating seniors were able to experience a graduation day that would make them smile for the rest of their lives. I got to meet and converse with dozens of our School District Police Officers who worked to ensure that our seniors, their families and other attendees were able to enjoy the day in a safe and secure facility. Special thanks to Officer Sal Longo and Major Makowski. You gentlemen are the finest examples of the professionalism that the Board would expect from our own police department officers. Joe Griffin of Herff Jones. At every graduation I saw you come to the rescue of many of our graduates who, as typical teenagers, forgot something that they needed, be it their robe, their tassel, their cords a even one lady who broke her shoe and a young man who forgot his shirt your kindness to our students certainly didn?t go unnoticed. Thank you for all you do each year to help make our graduations a success. And, of course, last but certainly not least, is Eric Stern. Eric, every year you work from early morning until late at night making sure the District is proudly on display to the community due to your commitment. i spent entire days at the fairgrounds with Eric and saw him wait to leave until everyone else was gone from the building in the evenings to check the restrooms and common areas to ensure that everything was clean and in order for the next morning's graduation even though he was typically the first person to arrive at the fairgrounds in the morning darkness to make sure the day started off well. Many years ago when the graduations were first moved from the convention center to the fairgrounds, asked the superintendent to assign the job of coordinating the graduations to Eric. Eric never fails to remind me of that and told me that he didn?t know it was to be a life sentence. Truthfully Eric, I?m not sure anyone could do a better job than you. Thank you for your many years of service in coordinating the graduation ceremonies. Since our last Board Meeting on May 1, 2019, I attended the following events and/or meetings: May 14 - Best Foot Forward Board meeting May 14 - Indian Ridge Graduation, Indian Ridge School May 15 - Santaluces HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 15 Royal Palm Beach School Graduation, Royal Palm Beach School May 15 - Dwyer Awards 2019, Kravis Center May 15 Meeting with Dr. Gonzalo La Cava May 16 - inlet Grove Graduation, Fairgrounds May 16 - Emceed at 33rd Annual Rotary Club of Boca Raton Sunrise Teacher of the Year Event May 17 - Seminole Ridge HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 17 - Dreyfoos Graduation, Fairgrounds May 17 Royal Palm Beach Graduation, Fairgrounds May 18 Atlantic HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 18 - Boynton Beach HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 18 Sosa Paton HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 20 Palm Beach Gardens Graduation, Fairgrounds May 20 Spanish River HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 20 ., Keynote Speaker at the West Boca HS Senior Academic Honors Banquet May 21 Jupiter HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 21 - Palm Beach Central HS Graduations, Fairgrounds May 22 Wellington HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 22 Meeting with Wanda Paul, Fairgrounds May 22 West Boca HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 22 Riviera Beach Prep 8: Achievement Academy Graduation, Fairgrounds May 22 School Police Officer Swearing in Ceremony May 23 - John I. Leonard HS Graduations, Fairgrounds May 23 Lake Worth HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 23 Giades Central HS Graduation, Glades Centrai HS May 24 Park Vista HS Graduations, Fairgrounds May 24 - Boca Raton Chamber Business Awards Luncheon May 28 ., Olympic Heights HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 28 - Suncoast HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 28 .. Meeting with Julie Ann Rico May 29 Palm Beach Lakes HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 29 Forest Hill HS Graduation, Fairgrounds May 29 Spoke at Loggers? Run MS ?Moving On? Ceremony May 30 Spoke at the Employees? Retirement Breakfast May 30 - Meeting with Dr. Laurie Riopelle regarding Principal?s Leadership Training May 30 - Coral Sunset ES Digital Divide Program at West Boca Raton HS May 30 - Waters Edge ES ?Moving On? Ceremony June 4 - Spoke at the Principal Leadership Academy, Paim Beach Central HS June 4 Toured the West Boca Paton Library with PEG Library Director Dougias Crane June 7 - Toured Pahokee High School with Prinoipal Dwayne Dennard Deputy Supt. Oswald June 7 - Spoke at Directors? Leadership Academy, Palm Search Central HS June 11 Spoke at the 25th Annual African and African American Summer Institute June 11 Thanked teachers in training for 3rd grade reading this summer at Kirkland Taylor ES June 13 Attended FSBA, Summer Conference, Tampa June 14 Attended FSBA, Summer Conference, Tampa June 19 Meeting with Michele Jacobs, Economic Council in addition to those events, i had weekly meetings with Superintendent Penney, Deputy Superintendent Oswald, Chief Operating Officer Paul, Chief of Staff Ed Tierney, General Counsel JulieAnn Rico, Inspector General Lung Chiu, Communications Director Claudia Shea, and Construction/Rrincipai Liaison Larry Clawson and had several conversations with our lobbyists, Ron LaFace and Rita Solnet. - As I had advised you in a previous report, I met with the members of Principal Leadership with respect to their concerns as to the manner in which investigations are handled by the Inspector General?s Office in relation to what they perceive as a lack of coordination in conducting those investigations between the Inspector General and the Superintendent acting through the Superintendent?s Human Resources Department. reviewed Board Rolicy1.092 which governs the Inspector General?s function and the policies set forth in Chapter 3 of our Board Policies governing investigations of District personnel by the Superintendent, and there does appear to be issues which give rise to conflicts between the policies as they rotate to the interaction between the Inspector General and the Superintendent. One particular issue is that Policy 1.092 requires the Inspector General to provide the Board with the investigative report at the same time it provides the report to the Superintendent which results in the report becoming public prior to the Superintendent having time to direct a review of the report by the Human Resources Department, to conduct any further investigation which the Superintendent believes is warranted, and to make a determination as to what, if any, disciplinary measures should be taken. Policy 1.092 also provides for an overtap of investigative authority between the Inspector General and HR which may result in confusion as to which office is assuming jurisdiction over an investigative matter and could possibly result in due process issues. I have met with Inspector General Lung Ohio and Attorney Liz McBride, Counsel for the Inspector Generai, and General Counsel Rice to discuss this issue. I believe the Board should authorize the Generai Counsel to work with the Inspector General to amend the relevant policies to ensure that investigations are coordinated between the Inspector General and the Superintendent without impeding the inspector General?s full and nonnrestricted authority to carry out the Inspector General?s duties as particularly specified in Section 5a. of Roiicy 3.01 which provides that the Inspector General shall ?[i]nitiate, conduct, supervise, and coordinate investigations designed to detect, deter, prevent and eradicate fraud, waste, financiai mismanagement, fiscal misconduct, and other abuses or wrongdoings in District government.? i ask my colieagues on the Board to please give this matter your consideration so that we may discuss it at the Office of Inspector General Workshop scheduled for July 0n another issue, I toured Rahokee High Schooi with Deputy Superintendent Keith Oswald and Principal Dwayne Dennard and members of his administrative staff on Friday, June 7. i was shocked at the significant deficiencies that I observed in the condition of the school facilities, especially in light of the vast differences between the condition of Pahokee High School and the schools that have visited in District 5 and other schools closer to the coast. I?m sure we can all agree that the children in the Glades area deserve the same standards as to condition of their schools as the children elsewhere in the District. As a result of my observations, immediately scheduled a meeting with Chief Operating Officer Wanda Paul and brought the matter to her attention. Ms. Paul has assured me that she will have her staff work on correcting the many deficiencies that I observed. I plan on arranging for another tour of the school closer to the start of the 2019 school year before the students and staff return to hopefully see for myself that the condition of the school has been significantly improved. if any Board members have any questions about this report or suggestions as to other meetings that you believe should have as Board Chair, please raise it at one of our upcoming public meetings. The General Counsel?s Office has asked that close this report with the following reminder: Please do not respond to me or communicate with any other Board member as to this report except at one of our public meetings. As indicated above, lhave had communications with several people. Please recall, School Board members must not circumvent the Sunshine Law prohibitions on informal discussions as to School Board matters by using a nonmmember third person as an intermediary or liaison between Board members. Thus, it" and when any Board member communicates with these people, you may discuss your own views but must not discuss private communications with them and another Board member or me. Thank you all again for entrusting the chairmanship to me. I remain honored to serve as your chairman. Co: Superintendent Dr. Donald E. Fennoy