Several public commenters used the district's non-agenda public comment period to press the Palm Beach County School Board on two recurring concerns: preservation of historically significant school buildings and the adequacy of services for students with disabilities in alternative and contracted programs.

Carl Mohammed, a longtime volunteer, asked the board to reconsider plans to demolish Inlet Grove School in Riviera Beach and to recognize the site's historical value. "The building is over 50 years, so it's...qualified to register itself as a historical building," Mohammed said, urging the board to preserve artifacts and the school structure rather than remove it.

Terrence Hart, who identified himself as a concerned citizen and described a prior personnel dispute with the district, thanked the board for past actions in his case and raised specific contract and compliance concerns. Hart said the High Ridge Family Center contract requires a certified counselor per classroom but that, in practice, the program has fewer counselors than teachers. He also alleged that detention-center and high‑risk school sites lack staff certified to deliver services required by individual education plans (IEPs), saying, "This is a problem that could get the district in a lot of trouble" under IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).

Lixen Nelson, president of Alliance Community and Employment Services (ACES), offered a community‑partner proposal to help students with disabilities transition from alternative settings into postsecondary options and employment. Nelson described ACES' work on mentoring, job coaching, and mental-health services and urged collaboration to "curb the pipeline to prison" for youth with disabilities.

Teacher Don Pearson criticized the district's online assessment environment, Performance Matters, saying students can "get out of the program and look stuff up," which he argued undermines the tests' value for measuring proficiency and misleads families about students' academic standing.

What the board heard and what it did not answer

Speakers cited specific statutes and federal law (IDEA, ADA, Section 504) and requested district follow-up. Terrence Hart explicitly urged the board to have its legal team review the High Ridge Family Center contract; the transcript contains his request but does not record an immediate response or follow-up assignment from the board during the meeting.

Community and program details mentioned

- Inlet Grove School (Riviera Beach) described as over 50 years old and potentially eligible for historic designation (speaker: Carl Mohammed).

- High Ridge Family Center contract: alleged shortfall in counselor staffing relative to teachers and inadequate certified ESE staffing at detention/high-risk sites (speaker: Terrence Hart).

- ACES: offers mentorship, work-readiness and mental‑health services for students with disabilities and is seeking partnership (speaker: Lixen Nelson).

- Performance Matters (district online testing platform): alleged vulnerability to cheating and misrepresentation of student proficiency (speaker: Don Pearson).

Next steps for readers and the board

Speakers asked for legal and administrative review; meeting minutes show the concerns on the public record but the transcript does not record district responses or a follow-up plan assigned during the meeting. Board staff and legal counsel should be asked to verify contract terms, confirm staffing and certification for ESE services at alternative sites, and report back to the board in a future meeting.

(Reporting here is based exclusively on public‑comment remarks made during the December meeting.)