By Rick Madewell
Assistant Editor

In a very unexpected move Tuesday night during a regular meeting, Osceola County School Board Chairman Cindy Hartig suggested dismissing the board's attorney, a move that failed.

Near the end of the three-plus-hour meeting, Hartig announced that she would like to replace Suzanne D’Agresta immediately and have former board attorney, Usher L. “Larry” Brown, take her place. Both Brown and D'Agresta are founding shareholders in Orlando-based Brown, Garganese, Weiss & D'Agresta.

The announcement seemed to take board members by surprise.

“Wow, that kind of came out of left field,” Board Member Julius Melendez said.

Hartig said D’Agresta is “great but our representation should not be tied to staff. I would like to have Mr. Brown step in immediately.

Melendez suggested the possibility of rotation but admitted he could not see the point of a change.

“I am very dependent on her … I asked Suzanne about something and she had the answer. I really don’t see the benefit. Even if you rotate, you lose institutional knowledge.”

Hartig then explained, “I like Suzanne. That’s not it. Sometimes change is good and we need to have that arm’s length thing.”

Board Member Jay Wheeler added his opinion of the attorney: “Suzanne has been terrific to work with. She is not a ‘yes’ person. She will tell you like it is. For what she does, she does it exceptionally well. I would like to see Suzanne continue.”

Wheeler said he felt the two best attorneys in Florida were D’Agresta and Brown.

Board Member Tom Long asked D’Agresta why Brown was rotated out from representation of the School Board.

D’Agresta explained there was an extreme amount of litigation going on against the School Board at that time and he chose to step away from board representation and focus on that litigation.

Long then abruptly made a motion to bring Brown on board for six months.

“Why fix something that's not broken,” Melendez asked. “Here we are fighting battles on a lot of things. If we were talking about performance then, OK, but now your adding seeds that don't necessarily need to be here. I feel like my energy is being sapped to a certain degree. She (D’Agresta) bailed me out today. I feel very comfortable that Suzanne knows what she’s talking about.”

After a brief silence, Long pointed out that he made the motion but nobody seconded it.

“So,” he said, “it died for lack of a second.”

Those attending the meeting applauded the result.

The board also discussed shorter presentation times, or art moments, from students before board meetings.

“No one on the board wants to do away with arts moments,” Hartig said. “But lots of people are complaining because of the meeting length.”

She suggested a good time for that would be outside the building in a special area between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., the day of board meetings, and that inside art moments last no longer than 15 minutes.

Long added he would like to see one student brought before the board and recognized at each meeting, and that it would not have to be a straight-A student.

Wheeler then said the times with the students need to stay in the meetings.

“While these are business meetings, we are here for the kids,” he said. “I think it is imperative that we include these in our meetings. I think taking them out of the meetings is just the wrong thing to do.”

In other business, the board:

• Approved a motion to allow painting services by Silva’s Painting Services.

• Approved a motion to pass the charter application for Imagine Schools.

• Approved a revised job description for the director of school food services.

• Approved a bid for Prestige Concrete to do concrete work.

During public comment:

• Mike Hagen, of St. Cloud, said he thought cutting off the superintendent's comments at the board’s last meeting was “very unprofessional.”

“Ms. Hartig said, ‘Let our district be judged on performance,' but you have yet to recognize the accomplishments,” Hagen said.

He also said he read that the state graduation rate is 80 percent, while the percentage for Osceola County is 83 percent. The audience applauded.

• Joseph Saunders, co-chairman of the Osceola Arts Coalition, announced that “Arts Alive” would be Wednesday, April 6, at Osceola High School. He then thanked the board for all they do.

• Kathy Donato, president of the Osceola Classroom Teachers Association, asked the board and public for help and support to keep decision-making “at the local level ... not in Tallahassee.” She explained that Senate Bill 736 and 830 would essentially tie teacher performance and teacher pay to student test scores.

“Send a message to Tallahassee to let us decide,” she said. “Do not force us to use a cookie- cutter approach to educate our children.”

• Raquel Schroeder, of Osceola County, said, “After watching the (last) meeting and reading the News-Gazette article, I feel I am taking a risk. I watched the four-hour meeting twice. I saw a lot of preparation has been done for these meetings. I have a deeper appreciation for these people.

“Let me be very clear when I say I support Dr. (Michael) Grego. He's provided academic accomplishments that we have never experienced before. He has provided results in a very difficult time. If you as a board are unable to collectively set a positive tone, other people can do it because they care. You want to find out the negative, but make sure to ask people what they are happy about. I ask you to take the time to learn the existing feedback structure. And thank you to whomever is responsible for making the meeting available online.”

The audience applauded loudly.

• Randy White, of St. Cloud, thanked construction managers for going out of their way to help local contractors.

“The system is working for us,” he said.

• Tony Schroeder, Orlando, told the board that he had lived in Osceola County for several years and that his children went through and grandchildren are going through the Osceola County school system.

“I own three houses in the county and pay enormous taxes on them, so I would hope this board spends its revenue on the children,” he said. “For them, it’s going be extremely competitive. I would hope this political, negative attitude of this board will stop and the focus be placed on the children, because that's where it should be.”

• Rene Clayton, principal of Celebration K-8 School, told the board about some of the positives.

“We are proud of the direction of the district. It is headed in the right direction” she said. “As a parent, I have never been more confident as a parent to have my kids in a school district. Students are confident to take tests because of what teachers have done. I could go on but we are alive and well.”

Her comments received huge applause.

• Stewart Arnold, of St. Cloud, a construction manager, told the board he wanted to make it aware of Clancy & Theys Construction Company's efforts to involve local contractors in all school work.

“Clancy & Theys have went out of their way,” he said. “They are making an effort to the best of their ability to involve local people.”