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Um, so we think it's an important two-prong strategy to support both classroom expansion and subsidy for our families. And we really hope that you will support uh sort of public preschool access in a diversity of ways with a healthy um support for expansion of preschool open doors. Uh and then with regards to the potential expansion of Executive Office of Early Learning to three-year-olds, uh we just respectfully request consideration of the additional supports and resources you meet developmentally appropriate health and safety and uh quality standards for the younger age group.
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Thank you for the opportunity to testify and please know I'm available for any questions. Thank you, Vivian. Members, questions? If not, moving on. Yuku Aria Cross testifying for executive office on early learning. Aloha Chair Kirani and members of the committee. I'm Yuko Aiko Cross, director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. Thank you for offering offering the opportunity to testify in support of this bill. We appreciate the legislator's intent to increase and expand options to affordable early learning programs and services across Hawaii. This bill amends chapter 302 L7 to expand the EO public prek program to enroll three-year-olds. So, we are requesting amendments to chapter 302 L7 to include three-year-olds in pertinent sections as outlined specifically in our testimony. We look forward to continuing our work with the legislature and other partners to increase universal access for our youngest kei. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I'm happy to answer any of your questions.
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Thank you. You members questions. Thank you very much. We have written testimony from a number of people in support. Sher Nakamura, Carrie Urosvich, Dr. Wy Ali, Ali Sarona, Calbertt Young, and Erica Molenu. Okay, members, if there are no questions, we are moving on to the next bill. Are you registered? Please come forward. Yeah. Yeah, next time you have to register. One time pass. All right. I didn't realize that. Whoops. Good afternoon, chair and members of the committee. My name is Linda Elento and um anyway, just briefly, I am a parent and I am now a grandparent and this bill has been really important to me. My very first testimony to the um legislature was almost 20 years ago um regarding preschool open doors. So I strongly um support funding and personally I certainly appreciate it. I just wanted to bring up a couple of comments if you would consider because this is a statute that also requires um accreditation and it very in section 346-184 it specifies the national early childhood types of accreditation and I know the purpose it seems to be for this bill is adding three-year-olds.
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It's my understanding that three-year-olds, at least in the special needs, have been granted the particular um type of grants that are provided under preschool open doors. But this seems to um counteract what the Department of Education has been doing with special education and so forth. What I like to see is that children with disabilities would be able to access also these preschool open doors without being told they're already served in the DOE. And so the co the words that have caught my eye in this particular statute are the the words underserved and it's very subjective as well as um looking at the age if we could just somehow make it simple three-year-olds are included because 5-year-olds aren't mentioned here but for instance ch because the kindergarten age was changed a few years back at the pet office in July 31. So for children who turn three in August, such as my grandson, he now faces three full years in preschool when I strongly believe he will be ready for kindergarten when he's 5 years old.
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You'll be turning five matter of a couple weeks after that cuto off age. So those are my concerns and I'll finish with this. I'd like to ask that you also as a committee consider the fact that the accredititations that are listed as well as the I believe subjective um allowance for the director of human services to decide what's um appropriate for our kids. One that's missing is the ASI ACSI. It's association of Christian schools international. I believe the committee should consider listing it here because we definitely have the potential of our state continue or would cons could perceivably say no to the preschools who are part of churches. They have faith-based standards through the ACSI. It's a very rigorous um accredititation program internationally and right now our preschool open doors do allow for that particular accreditation. So my concern even though like for the House of Human Services Committee heard a similar bill yesterday um basically they're just continuing delaying the act the activation of this particular measure that was passed back in 20120 amended in 21.
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So because of the pandemic I kind of lost sight of this particular issue but it certainly got my attention um this year. And I'll finish with this. There's a Supreme Court decision that was made this last June. Um, US Supreme Court Carson versus Min Ki N. It um the Supreme Court came back and said that um Maine, the state of Maine's ban on um state funding for private Christian schools or religious schools in particular um that was against religious claims and constitution as well as the first amendment. I appreciate your attention to these concerns. Um I strongly believe there's no problem with um funds being given to Christian schools even with the form of a grant or whatever type of funding that you consider as a state. Thank you, Linda. Nice to see you again. Nice to see you. Members, questions? If not, recess. reconvening the committee on education.
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So the chair and members of the committee are recommending that we pass Senate Bill 826 relating to the school facilities authority as is. We will also be passing out Senate Bill 7 relating to school facilities authority as Okay, we'll wait till you catch up. Yeah. So, The first two are as is 826 as is seven. Okay. On Senate Bill 941 relating to school facilities. Recommendation of the chair is to specify that teacher and workforce housing pilot shall be at the three identified locations by the school facilities authority which are Nanakuli High and Intermediate W Pahu and Milani high schools. Also providing the F SFA with the authority to partner with public and private development agencies to develop the teacher housing pilot sites. also to provide SFA with the authority to transfer any funds appropriated in this bill to state partners to effectuate the purpose of this bill.
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And finally noting in the committee report that the intention of this is to provide housing for teachers but acknowledging that should vacancies occur, the SFA should be empowered to offer those units to eligible educators. Chair, do we want to vote on the first ones first or do you want to keep No, let me let me go through all of them and then we'll vote. Sorry. No. And then Senate Bill 832 relating to education. Uh this is a authorizing the counties to transfer land to the school facilities authority. We're going to defer this one to February 13th, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. in this conference room 229. We also are going to defer Senate Bill 10:22 technical um I'm sorry, Senate Bill 10:22 relating to early learning board. also deferring until February 13, 2023 at 3 PM in this room 229. Senate bill 1023 relating to early learning which appropriates money for the preschool open door programs and executive office on early learning expand to preschool and to implement program changes required by previous acts.
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We are also going to defer this bill to February at 3:00 p.m. in room this room 229. Okay. So members for the vote. I was stalling to see if was coming back but with three members present. Chair is recommending to pass out Senate Bill 8.26 26 as is. Chair votes I. Chair votes I. Vice chair is excused. I vote I. Senator Richards I. Senator Favlla is excused. Chair, you have three eyes. Recommendations adopted. Thank you for Senate Bill 7 relating to the school facilities facilities authority. Recommendation of the chair is to pass as is. Chair votes I. Chair votes I. Vice chair is excused. I vote I. Hi, Senator Richards. Hi. Senator Favlla is excused. Chair, you have three eyes. Recommendations adopted. Thank you for Senate Bill 941 relating to the school facilities authority. The recommendation of the chair is to pass with these amendments to specify that the teacher and workforce housing pilot shall be at the identified locations provided the SFA providing the SFA with the authority to partner with public and private development agencies.
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providing the SFA with the authority to transfer any funds appropriated in this bill to state partners. And finally noting in the committee report, the intention of this is to provide housing for teachers, but should vacancies occur, the SFA should be empowered to offer those units to other educators. Recommendation of the chair is to pass Senate Bill 941. Chair votes I with amendments. Chair votes I. Vice chair is excused. I vote I. Senator Richards I. Senator Flla I. Chair you have four eyes. Recommendations adopted. Thank you. For Senate Bill 832 recommend. This is relating to education. The recommendation is to um defer this bill to February 13. I'm sorry. 3:00 p.m. in this conference room 229 on Senate Bill 1022 technical I'm sorry to relating to early learning board recommendation of this chair is to also defer this bill for decision making until February 130 p.m.
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in this conference room 229. And finally, Senate Bill 10:23 relating to early learning. Recommendation of the chair is also to defer this bill to February 13th at 3 p.m. in this conference room 229.
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With that, this meeting is adjourned.
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foreign good afternoon welcome to the committee on education today is Monday February 6. at three o'clock P.M and hearing room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote participants is being streamed live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and on-demand video page of the legislature's website this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the three o'clock pm agenda for the committee on education in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearings due to Major technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Wednesday February 8th at 3 o'clock P.M in this room 229 any public notice will be posted on the legislature's website I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill for people participating remotely please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when I call your name unmute yourself and your time will begin after your minute is completed staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient manner thank you members committee first start on our agenda is Senate Bill 105 relating to education it changes the department of education's quarterly report requirement on autism spectrum disorder to an annual report to testify superintendent Hayashi please foreign testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you superintendent members any questions thank you and we have one written testimony in opposition from Louis Esther Schick Hawaii disability rights Center is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure if not members with no questions are moving on to item number two Senate Bill 816 relating to computer science education allows students to complete computer science courses as a substitute for science credits at the high school level to count towards graduation requirements requires a computer science course credit as a graduation requirement the high school level beginning with the 2030 2031 school year appropriates funds for Teacher professional development in computer science okay to testify superintendent Hayashi please good afternoon Vice chair Kim and members of the committee I'm Heidi Armstrong from the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony offering comments thank you members and questions Senator Kim hi Heidi um So currently folks can do this currently you can do this without legislation we we offer computer science as coursework it is a course it can be I'm a credit bearing course but it won't be in lieu of a science credit course but you could if you wanted to feel you can do put it in lieu of a science credit course with my legislation we would need we work with our Board of Education in determining the graduation requirements and we would continue to work with them if there was a change to the current graduation requirement well the point I'm trying to make is that we don't need them the um that just piece of legislation to make this happen that if Poe and the Board of Ed wanted to do it you folks can do it yes right okay and then you say in your testimony that this is just one piece of the knowledge so in essence you're saying that you shouldn't do this so you want to expound some more and why correct so the department adopted the Next Generation science standards and replace the end we also have the board adopted computer science standards so replacing one with the other wouldn't be within our purview at this time because they're different sets of standards So within the standards now would it cover exactly what this measure is asking for it the ngss offers a broader scope than the particular computer science strand thank you members any other questions um Miss Armstrong my question is um what's the college entry level for science there was would this computer science be equivalent to a science curriculum credit at the high school level from the high school level can you repeat that when you enter College you need so many credits of science right would disqualify no any other questions remember we'll start when you say this meaning this measure or what you folks have known that that's this I'm meaning this yeah yeah thank you okay there's no other questions moving on to Senate Bill 830 relating to Emergency Medical Response this is requiring each Public Schools administration to appoint critical emergency response team members and establish procedures to respond immediately to critical medical emergencies to take effect July 1 2023 to testify Deputy attorney general and Lopez good afternoon Vice chair Kim members of the committee Deputy attorney general Agra yucci as set forth in our testimony the department wanted to provide some clarifying amendments if the bill is meant to include Charter Schools then the bill should be amended in certain ways and if it's not meant to include Charter Schools then we've suggested other amendments in our testimony we also suggested potential language that would address a potential liability of the critical emergency response team members um I'm available for questions thank you members question Senator medical uh response team um because they're not going to be paid you're just going to be working for the school or being provided Maybe not maybe not necessary to me to be faculty the way to harm me I don't know if that's what they're meaning to as an emergency having a school having an emergency responsible reason why I was going to ask that is because I know um we still covered under the Good Samaritan law um when this um as an Embrace he responding protect the people that is um responding to an uh emergency like uh either guys in CPR or they need some kind of medical help um protect them um I don't want to stray too far away from our testimony I would just say that my understanding of the Good Samaritan law is that it would protect bystanders but I worry that if this law would um basically mandate that the team members are required to act under certain circumstances and that might not protect them under the S bystander under the Good Samaritan law these things but it should have for me um prepared to be bystanders and rendering can't say whether it's better or not I'm just there's all the firefighters predict when they doing CPR on the infant or an elderly person and they broke ribs when they cause damage because they're machine as part of the Good Samaritan law protects them in in half of what they're doing within their within their job so I just one thing because you're seeing that there's a liability only if you are eight or you you're a volunteered another in Good Samaritan I'm not prepared to say whether or not I would apply I think I'd have to take a look at the exact wording of the statute and and to to double check but I think what we wanted to be clear on is that um we are proposing this amend uh proposed language regarding liability to um just address a potential liability concerns of what might be faced by the people on these emergency response teams um but I don't think that based on what I have before me I should be commenting on the applicability of the Good Samaritan statute and whether it would provide more or less um protection to the members of the team that are supporting this bill the way I read the bill is that we would be members of the the schools here we School correct so they are paid members great picture thank you further questions members thank you thank you next to testify superintendent by your shoot we lost you again superintendent yeah an improvement ah good afternoon Vice chair Kim members of the committee Colonel tugural Deputy superintendent testifying on behalf of superintendent Hayashi and the department we've submitted our written testimony we stand on it in support uh on this measure and we're happy to answer any questions that you may have thank you thank you members questions I have a question these individuals or you think individuals if anytime there's that kind of an emergency but there yeah thanks thanks for that question is coming um this measure actually expands and strengthens what is currently in place put some attention to it so today we have school health assistance that are designated every school they are trained to do CPR and that kind of thing the rest of the staff besides I think it's athletic directors or the athletic staff do do CPR but that's on a voluntary basis and every school is different depending on size so it depends 8 15 on a committee to respond to these things so I think this measure can help us to reinforce that but it is as Senator Philip said it's voluntary at this time to be CPR certified yeah I guess the point I'm just trying to make is it possible to that everybody be a CPR certified because they've been incident like this yes again if there's nobody that happened to be nearby or around to witness this or to be in the position of Hope will live oh it will absolutely help because as as we know innocence can happen at any given time so the more people or more faculty or staff that are aware of it the better off we're going to be so it's just providing that awareness of why give them the wisestorm what what value they will provide by taking a circle I just don't want it to be a false sense because you know at any given time there might not be anybody that can can meet that individual within the two minutes or whatever amount of time that's needed um although I want to make sure that we're not going with 12 cents I believe it's it will be our responsibility to uh to show the the value of it uh and we know that these things have changed over time and so I think it's it's up to leadership to it it provide those examples of why it's important I think for the questions remember sure the only reason I bring this up is because when I was a at that time was classified as security all of us had to be CPR certified and we all had to carry the poach or you know the multiple contact and all of that so it was not only trained on that and uh uh when they're responsible also of course using the stuff that they have all over otherwise about adaa whatever it is yeah now get more before it was very expensive so not only everybody could have them but um having that extra training and I know we're looking for enhancing the security back um when gradually in the pay and the classification but um I think if they get back training because that's the one's always on campus and always around more um I think we I think would be a good thing for them to be be trained for them yes and if they were trained before as you know the rules have changed so that melt them out is no longer yeah that's necessary so I mean that's a better appeal but unless we educate our staff that may have done it before that these are changes that may be more conducive today that that's the kind of thing we need to do absolutely thank you thank you chair thank you so Kirk um tell me again who responds now to emergencies on campus why I think anybody does but you have designated a school health assistant they they are the point for that obviously every school has a health everybody should have hopefully they're they're all filled and these Health assistants are not required to have um this this that position is required to be certified in CPR first date uh the rest are volunteered but that's why they form committees and so would you if this bill is passed would you be able to implement it for the next school year we hope that if this bill is passed with with additional funding the answer is yes the funding will help in additional first aid kits AED equipment where it's not there uh there is a minor what's a small maintenance fee but when you multiply it by 258 schools it'll add up so yeah the short answer is yes we can Implement how effective is it going to be based on the funding that we received so that we can expand this and as well as do the trade on an ongoing basis trading one time is good but I believe we need to do this on a periodic basis so it's always top of mind okay um if you could provide this committee with a list of what equipment would be needed and approximately what that would cost per school okay thank you oh what question sure Senator Kim um do you need this bill in order to do this this bill it's great no the answer is no we're doing this today but this doesn't but your ex this acts to ask for that to be extended yes so when the chair asks you whether you could Implement them and you certainly could implement it without having to measure so even if the measure doesn't pass is this something that the poe is committed to do the deal is committed to do everything okay so money could be put in the budget without a bill and you would do it thank you thank you okay moving on to the next item on the agenda I'm sorry are you signed up to testify sorry I don't have my list all right okay next to testify ZZ Zong Aloha kayaka chair Vice chair and of the education committee my name is Angela Melody young origin I'm testifying in strong support in a medical emergency every minute matters many schools conduct a variety of drills to assess coordination the school's crisis management functions and tabletop exercises so that emergency response teams can improve in practice the research from the legislature as provided by this measure finds that Doe currently has basic emergency response guidance there is a gap between guidance provided to administer first aid and carrying out the training and preparedness of personnel during emergencies so there's this Gap right and the purpose of this act is to supplement the dose emergency procedures to help improve responses to emergencies just to prepare for unforeseen circumstances in the future each School shall develop a known practice known practice and maintain communication method to activate during emergency response with their critical emergency team members and each member shall respond in good faith when activated on the U.S department of educations directory there are emergency procedure documents from other schools such as a school from California that have a very similar structure to what is outlined in the bill in the measure it is imperative to support our school's emergency response teams so that everyone can receive Medical Care in a timely manner thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you members questions of the testifier if not moving along Amanda Lee okay thank you for having me um I wrote this legislation after an incident with my son um to answer some of the questions I feel like that you folks are asking I spoke with Max Mendoza who's the director of safety um security and emergency preparedness for the Department of Education and he was the one that recommended I write this legislation and that it would basically require Statute in in order for it to be expanded appropriately and then funded appropriately as well there's also language in the bill that does ask that each School run drills in addition to the drills that they already run to demonstrate that they do have the capacity to respond within three minutes or less thank you thank you members questions if not Commando next to testify Rania alcoley and support keopu randitz and support is there anyone here so I'm measure to testify um I support the bill your name please thank you Rania members any further questions was there anyone online to testify I don't see anyone signed up no one on Zoom chair thank you okay um members there's no further questions moving on Senate Bill 289 relating to direct instructional services to students the only ones so to testify is superintendent I'm sorry did I skip one I did two eight zero I guess I ate too much lunch okay 280 relating to direct instructional services to students allows the Department of Education to create temporary positions under certain conditions amends the requirement that the Department of Education report the creation of temporary positions to the Department of budget and finance by requiring the report also be sent to the legislature to testify superintendent Hayashi hello Vice chair Kim members of the committee Keith ayashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony offering comments on this measure thank you for the opportunity to testify members questions of the superintendent who just wanted to expelled on his comments for the General Public could you expound on your comments so the general public watching understand what it is sure thank you for the question um um currently uh SP 280 will limit the Department's Mobility on authority to create temporary positions um only to those that provide instructional delivery directly to students we are able to establish uh temporary positions for variety of reasons to advance what we do in the department in addition to instructional Services provided to students temporary positions also provide critical supports for for students and teachers one example is um for example uh related to flexibility and responsiveness of the um to the uh as a result of a pandemic but we were able to um established positions that was able to I think provide us flexibility to adjust and adapt to be able to react to the needs of our schools and support the schools and school staff so the um we wish to retain our ability to do that so why do you think this measure was introduced [Music] um I believe Senator Kim that perhaps uh it is a um a concern uh that uh the department um is establishing we're able to establish positions that creates flexibility for us uh the currently though uh the we're very fortunate the Board of Education just finished their strategic plan and as a result of the Strategic plan being finished uh we are at the next phase that was phase one phase two is not an implementation plan and that implementation plan then uh would um uh require the department to look at um part of that implementation of potential reorganization of the department and so for those reasons um we did I did established two Deputy superintendent positions to um help support an assessment evaluation of the department for us to be more efficient and effective moving forward and with that to the joke that's from the uh instructional Services I believe that those funds were not uh funds that were allocated for direct instructional services for students but technically this measure is saying that we want to enhance Direct Services and not necessarily when it's the next bill that's what that's about that um not necessarily so planting or or administrative positions right it's it's my understanding that um we did not utilize funds that were designated for schools to established the positions uh that was that were created so you can create temporary positions now yes have you heard what's yours what's your track record of providing temporary positions for direct student services versus temporary positions for administrative purposes um I believe we we are able to in our yes we can or uh get people to go to come up on what they are uh we are able to create temporary positions um at the school level and that allows schools to be able to adjust and um to the needs that they have unique to their individual and respective schools these would include non-instructional positions would include uh security attendance or custodial positions um office staff and and so forth at the complex and state levels uh we have as as an example um the ability to create uh positions as I shared earlier um to adjust the needs created on by the pandemic um I really believe that having that flexibility and the ability to adjust and uh for these positions to be able to support School level and system as a whole or really allowed us to be nimble and to be uh to be able to react and adjust to the to the ongoing needs of the department the unique needs of schools uh the basic simple question what's the what's your track record on creating temporary positions for direct students just to clarify when you say track record meaning how successful we've been or advantage of like you know we did two temporary positions for Direct Services and 12 positions for others I mean that there's incredible comparison maybe to to uh just instill the um I think what Senator is getting to through also is that when we're going through the pandemic we got federal funds for specific things so did we have to go to the board for those or could you guys just do it uh we did go to the board in terms of extra funding and so we were we did create buckets of extra funds that were bought approved for us to be able to respond to the needs of schools um yeah if if I may have Senator Kim I think we'll Target at my position but you know when you look at the department overall in the total FD that that's reported in the state's effort report right over the over the 10 years um the net effect is is the same it's it's been flat 21 800 maybe now it's 21 600 reported in terms of salaried employees right um as and as you know statement State executive branch has the ability to establish temporary positions for special projects with a specific term which is what our positions for deputies it's good for a year approved by the board but an answer to your question I think the school's my understanding they'll do it freely because they can and that's a tremendous flexibility that allows them to react at the community level without going through the state office bureaucracy um but in terms of overall FDA if you're asking are we creating extra positions the reports show that the department has had the same amount of total employees now within that there there are pluses and minuses administrators have gone up a bit but they're still within the four percent range um support staff come and go so the apartment has been very resourceful in terms of keeping their total ft count at the same level now obviously the dollar amounts go up because of salaries um but it's it's no different I think in terms of what executive branch can do yeah I'm not you know I'm not criticizing temporary positions I'm just wondering what if you can do it already what what this bill really accomplishes there must be some um or some reason why Direct Services to the students is specified which leads me to think that there may be temporary positions being created or non-direct services and products that's where the need should be and it's not whenever those bills introduced there's always some remedy that somebody feels that there's there's some expectancy or some need and it's kind of what I'm trying to find in this message yes as we know the authority is great for the Department of Education that executive branch departments don't necessarily have but this department is also huge as you're very well know um and or for two Deputy positive or three Deputy positions to manage 286 schools with that many of employees is a tremendous task for the superintendent because it's it's like a site they're running the state by themselves with all the different components whether it's education facilities right right okay I got it thank you so superintendent or Kurt either one um the Department of Education receives grants throughout the year from different entities Etc so for whenever you receive those kinds of Grants is it normal for you to have to hire someone temporarily to use the grants or anything required within the language of the grant that requires you to hire temporary positions I'll let chat one second foreign some grants I believe um we're able we are able to purchase positions as part of the grant whereas others may not be as flexible but there are grants that require you to have a temporary position or someone in a position to make use of the events I I believe so yes thank you members further questions if not I see um part of a chair Vos in the room and I believe um yes please I was trying to hide behind courageous yeah so I know that the board has just completed their strategic plan so would you like to weigh in on this conversation yes and thank you senator for the opportunity to contribute Bruce Foss chair of the Board of Education um it's kind of a two-level senator first um I understand the legislature's concern that appropriated funds should go for their appropriate purpose and In fairness to the legislature there has been some issues with rollover funds in the past um but I believe this bill goes basically too far and constrains the Department's flexibility for the reasons the superintendent says specifically in this address is Senator Kim's question here I don't think there's any you asked what prompted this it was the board's approval of two Deputy superintendent positions for 190 thousand dollars I think we all know that um and I do want to explain very briefly why the board did that and why I would respectfully ask this committee to consider deferring this we did that because um 289 or 280 to 280 which is the one that specifically references the board the superintendent represented that these two positions were critical to his desire to restructure the department to reorganize and to make it more efficient the board did that approved it because we wanted to support the superintendent in the best interest of our students second the board had similar concerns to what you have here and required the superintendent to come back and make a report on these two specific positions approved only on a temporary basis to show that they did in fact achieve their intended purpose to make operations more efficient and and effect restructuring specifically as to the chair's question the board did just approve a first phase in the Strategic plan which has our strategies our priorities and our outcomes as superintendent said the department is tasked with the challenging task of putting together an implementation plan which would include specific strategies that is to say what is the department going to do and do differently and second what are the metrics that the department is going to use to measure to make sure they're making progress for our students these two positions are critical to that effort it's a heavy lift for the department they have 160 000 students and Deputy superintendent Chun is going to be instrumental in writing it um Deputy superintendent uh odagura is involved already deeply in restructuring particularly the efforts on facilities making it more efficient that's important to short-term legislature has appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars that we need to do a better job of getting out the door and also long-term given the needs so given their roles in the senator to address your question I would respect for the request um that the committee considered deferring this so that these two um positions can move forward and help us with the implementation plan and second when the when they Report with the superintendent reports back to the board on whether these positions have had the intended effect we of course would be happy to share that with the legislature thank you for the opportunity to testify or offer comments thank you chair boss members questions report should be expected from this amendment um we did not specify but it was our understanding that it would come um essentially after the conclusion of the um the implementation plan is supposed to be approved in April the superintendent's evaluation is in May and we would expect the superintendent to come back with this report in June of this year so and again we would be happy to supply that to the legislature um when it's made and temporary positions how long is temporary uh it's my understanding I'm not the expert here my understanding is it's up to one year is that right superintendent it is of okay are the questions numbers if not thank you very much okay next on the agenda really the Senate Bill 289 relating to direct instructional services to students requires that Appropriations allocated to the Department of Education programs that provide instructional Services directly to students shall remain within the budget of programs which they were originally allocated and that the retention of an appropriation shall not be used by the department as a basis for reducing a program's future budget requirements to testify superintendent ayashi please check here members of the committee Keith ayashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you superintendent questions members thank you thank you I have no other testifiers moving on to the next and the last item Senate Bill 290 relating to direct instructional services to students requires that Appropriations allocated to department of education programs that provide instructional Services directly to students shall remain within the budget of the program to which they were originally allocated and that the retention of an appropriation shall not be used by the department as a basis for reducing a program's future budget requirements allows the Department of Education to create temporary positions under certain conditions amends the requirements that the Department of Education report the creation of temporary positions to the Department of budget and finance by requiring that the report also be sent to the legislature and I'm sure before you call the testify I'd like you is it right to assume that this bill is Affordable encompassable 280 and 281.
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it's called order and take a roll call Mike Davenport here Christopher Espinoza here Jenny hagstrom here Gary pavasich here Joanna Vasquez Drexler here Nancy cup here and Caitlin Vincent here thank you for the pledge foreign good evening everybody it's nice to see all of you I am really really happy to introduce to you a few of our members from our theater program and they're going to talk to you tonight about their show that was chosen to perform at the Illinois High School theater Festival um just a couple of weeks ago and so I'm going to introduce them and I'm going to do last names too I can do this so um so if you guys want to stand and you can come over here um and these five young people are very highly involved in theater I think that I see them in every show every dance every event that happens in the auditorium they are so involved and it's so amazing I'm pretty sure that Robbie could like run lights for every single thing with his hands tied behind his back and his eyes closed so all of these guys are really really involved in our fine arts program and so we have Zoe Petro Robbie Boucher Sydney Miller Matt Sirota and Natasha Fugate and they're going to talk to you tonight about how their show got chosen and just as a side note I do believe it is the first show that has been chosen from North High School um to perform at the Illinois High School theater Festival so I'm going to turn it over to you guys and I will be your clicker so just tell me when to go okay from previously theater Fest and then so we first started way back in May if you would believe it so uh I am the assistant director stage manager we have the lighting designer and then we have two of our lead actors throughout the whole show and then Natasha was a lead through the original bominy and then had to step away to go do the Allstate show and so we started out with like this it's a it's a melding uh of both kind of groups Yeah so basically this show starts in May and it's our Varsity show which means it's like the best the best we cast the year before and then we open um in August so our original production is the varsity play the actors you see all those awesome pictures that's in our Studio Theater 248s um and that was at Davenport High School um and this was like before we went to the theater Festival so we started here um it was a really new play to do that we haven't done before it was wrapped and it was in the studio Theater which like microphones itself which is not a typical show we usually do we don't do a lot of raps and a lot of crude humor usually in theaters really weird so that was like the big seller for the show and it went off with a success if you guys so something that makes the varsity show different than it will show is that it is very very important to create relationships between the cast and the crew just creating a strong company altogether so that means that some crew members took on acting roles on stage and then actors such as ourselves would take on roles and crew like building the sets that you see up there and just um building the things that we would be performing on and performing with like props and wearing like costumes which was really cool um and it was especially fun because we have such a great um basis of like student leadership in our theater program 99 of the stuff that we made for this show was all led by students we had a student design the lighting our props were headed by students um the actors were able to dive in a lot with their work but um sound also has a big part we all are able to help design and help create um and be part of the behind the scenes process which I think is especially fun especially with a varsity play because you have a smaller group of kids that can really just like pull apart a play and like make it something that they're really proud of so that was especially exciting in the next slide I believe and then so to get if you don't know what this is so Illinois High School theater Festival is run by the Illinois theater Association and so the way that you get a show to go to state is you have to have somebody from this Association come and adjudicate is what they call it your show and so uh we got so that we were like the first show to be adjudicated because usually they aren't done that early and so a guy came in and he watched her show and then afterwards he would give us feedback he gave us responses he asked the designers about their process and the actors about what had been going on and we got a chance to like get like real uh like good information about like what we had just done and then we didn't actually find out we were going to theater Fest until the until Thanksgiving we found out yeah we found out right after we actually concluded our 1X production and we found out our closing night right after all of like the everything had been taken care of and we had to rebuild the whole show from the ground up with all new materials and like a few weeks like two weeks yeah two three weeks or breaks and we weren't working we were celebrating and it was like oh Christmas time great and then Natasha and Robbie do you guys want to talk about like the kind of like adjudication process yeah so like um the dude here came in and we just had a conversation with him about you know the design process and whatnot it was not it was not like a you did this wrong this is this is bad I don't like this it was like a why did you choose this like it was an open conversation without the theater artist which was really good for like uh students like us to learn and like just get honest feedback from like professionals like this guy like does costumes for like I don't even know but he he was pulling down he knew what he was talking about yeah so um pretty much what he did was he just asked for like specific groups he's like choose one of your actors to like speak on your behalf and then just talk about their process a little bit he did the same thing for designers like he was like choose a costume designer to speak choose like a senior very designer a Scenic designer to speak and then it there was like three speakers I think um roughly and then we just told him our process and then afterwards he gave us he gave us feedback as as was mentioned so yeah and then so in the next slide so the next slide is when we had to start redesigning everything because we were put in a really big concert hall at U of I because it's this massive massive area and we went from if you know where 248 is in Downers Grove North that's a it's a real small area where we went from I think it was about like a 30 foot wide stage to a 64 foot wide stage and with the head no lighting and was on hardwood floors so it was a like a major difference and then hmm Yeah so basically we kind of just had to like go like dig in our rooms and like crack open the script from August and like we we just kind of ran back into it we all we um picked up the plans from um back in August to start rebuilding the set and start creating everything and we were lucky enough to hold new auditions for this new show because we had to fill spots for Natasha for example who was committed to Allstate who couldn't be in our production and other roles and we just wanted to make it like bigger and better so we were able to have understudies come in and fill up all of those roles because we were not going to take any chances on anything going around with wrong with this production um and so we were basically just able to get back into it and teach these new um people joining our show what the whole story is about and everything we've created and all the the creative juices and energy that went into all of it so it was really exciting to talk to my understudy and like help him figure out this crazy rap show and teach all of the different beats and flows and it was it was really exciting it was really fun to dive back into it and also at the same time start frantically building this set and learn how to put it up and put it down like we would need to at U of I yeah we had loading groups because everything we had this massive three building set that had to go up in 90 minutes so uh both of them did like a really like amazing job doing loading especially considering you guys hadn't done a whole lot of crew work prior to it and you just you jumped in and it like you guys had like some like the hardest like you had like I in my opinion the hardest part to build yeah so my loading experience was um we had an hour and a half from the time that the doors open for us to get into the space until the time that the doors open for our audience to come into the auditorium um the concert hall that we were in so my job specifically was to bring in some set pieces from the truck which was a very long walk um and then I was building that house structure that Zoe was talking about and it really took up until the doors open for me to step out of my crew shoes into my um the rolls of the shoes of my role as an actor and that process was probably five to ten minutes where I had to be in full costume full hair full makeup get my mic on do a very very quick mic check and be ready on stage for the audience to see our show okay I mean it was it was crazy I mean you think 90 minutes like okay they put up the set no it's like it's a two-story set you gotta put these lights you put the sound you guys have everything that would usually take like months in 90 minutes so we like rehearsed loading it in loading it out multiple times just so that we could head down to a signs this goes here in the truck this goes here this comes out first this needs to move here so that when we had those 90 minutes we were done and the the people that were like at ice not ISU Illinois sorry um they were kind of wild because we came in there with such preparation the the union guys were like okay we're just not gonna do anything because you guys is me in our hotel room that that was a little before show programming session you know just to make sure all the cues were good but that's uh me and hotel is kind of a funny picture this year our director Mr Moses literally had everything down to four minute increments for our whole load-in process to make sure that everything for each team was meticulous we rehearsed it yeah it was for her we took it up at least like five times up and down yeah and then we were like we're throwing curveball with the uh the bombs around that team so that it was a it was kind of stressful because they were like everything shut down and then we were like what so it was like not even as minus some because we couldn't get in uh we didn't know if our first show would even have it yeah we were one of the art and that's because we had seven people go in on the early bus but like literally the early bus got there as the alarm was put on so we all had to sit in the Krannert Center for a lot for a pretty long time and it was me and another girl who had like an inner College interview we had to get to and it was absolute chaos because they weren't telling anybody what was going on and so like it wasn't even it wasn't on our side of the campus but obviously they all they had to lock everything down and take the threat seriously and so it was like like the craziest I think it was like an hour an hour two hours of like our lives because and then we opened we were the first show to open that morning it was kind of insane because they wanted us to be right there so that everyone would have something to do right away you can go you guys want to talk about your um sure so all of this craziness that we've talked about finally like came to uh came to a head and we were able to perform on time for a great audience it was so it was so cool because obviously this was theater Fest so you're performing for a bunch of theater kids so they're gonna they're gonna like pick out things that you're doing that they know are super special and super cool so it was just it was so fun to be able to present our art and be like this is this is our crazy show and it was weird compared to compared to the other shows that went to theater Fest we were definitely an oddball because it's it's you know Shakespeare rap whatever so it was definitely um it was strange and it was a new environment and it was all this craziness but it was it was just so special I think might be like my favorite theater experience I guess at North I I just don't know what could compare to this because it was I mean this coming May would be a year since our original audition so it's been a long process between the original show and the new show so it it was a great final performance for all of us and I think it was it was really special yeah they were like cheering and all so just hearing those laughs and hearing the cheers for all every single line even some of the lines that we didn't even think would get a reaction got a reaction and so amazing I was beaming on stage it's crazy I think my favorite thing was like I was in like the lunch line the next day because we were like gonna leave in a few hours and we were getting food before we saw our next show and these people in front of us were talking about how like it was life-changing like it is so cool to hear because how often do you hear that like the show that you put on in high school was like it made someone look at life differently they were like it made them excited to learn about Shakespeare the Shakespeare is usually like oh my God I have here this year but like they were like this makes me so excited due to Shakespeare next year this makes me so excited to like do the show that my director picked out and that's like it's just really heartwarfing to hear that like it actually had an impact and like it made a difference between and like I think every single person all around said that they had some kind of experience like that oh yeah yeah so once all of our performances were done I think we can oh perfect um so we basically take down the set one last time in uh the cranner hall and then we get it into our trucks and we get it all home after our whole um Shenanigans of theater fest going to see other shows and stuff and then we brought it all back to the dgn auditorium and we kind of took it apart piece by piece you know because in the truck it's kind of just like walls and bigger portions and then we finally got to just kind of um take everything apart at strike and it was definitely it's definitely a lot of work always we always do strikes for shows and it's always um very strenuous but by the end of it because this has been such a crazy experience it was very um it was just so rewarding to finally be able to like finish this big show um do you want to talk about yeah and then after this strike we have we have been starting some new post-strike post show Traditions with our new director and the one for this show was that we had the full company sitting in a circle and we would we just gave positive memos and just goodbyes to everyone we actually used a ball of yarn would throw it around a compliment web of course um and I just used this experience I used this moment to look around the circle see the new cast the new crew and then just also reflect on the original company who brought this show to where it was now and just think about those new people that I met the show that I fell in love with it really helped me fall in love with theater I started doing more shows after that because I it's just one of my favorite shows and it was it's just crazy and I loved it so much it's crazy to say goodbye so we all as like a dgn theater we all had like this really life-changing experience going to theater Fest it was probably like the most immersive experience for ever gonna have as high schoolers but then Natasha went off to Allstate uh to with his Allstate a little blurbed like they virtually everyone you everyone in the states allowed to interview to be in Allstate and then they choose who they like the most and then they put on a show so that the whole state it's the best of the state putting on this amazing show uh in the largest uh Performing Arts Center at uh Allstate and they it's it's like supposed to it is like the best of the best it's it was amazing yeah so um if you flip the slide we're gonna move on to the Allstate show which this year was Shrek um so as we touched on we had um interviews back in June I think of this year to establish who would be in the company so um I I was selected to be a part of the Allstate company and it was an incredible experience so you can put this live okay so we're gonna talk fast so um what has so All State okay hold on let me re-evaluate so I was um my title for Allstate I was a part of this props and special effects crew and I do um a lot of prep work at North so this was um a huge honor to me to be like considered like best in state for props and like these are just some of the stuff that I made um along and I like collaborated with a lot of people I did a lot of things I thought I'd never do I exploded a bird on stage um so these were just some of the projects that I had the most fun doing and um you can flip the slide again and one of the things that I loved so much about Allstate is I got to meet so many new people that had the same passions I did and like had that weren't just like the people that I've known for four years um and as much as I love that all the kids at dgn who I work with it was so like refreshing to like meet new people and to like be like oh here's my pre-show Traditions what's yours and we would do each other's pre-show Traditions before shows and like just learning from everybody around me who shares who has the same interests as me and then you can decide again um and then another thing that you might not think about as much for um a team is all the adults that were in charge they were chosen a lot like us they had they had interviews they were chosen and they were first like their most volunteers they're volunteers at heart and um our director for vomiti Ariel Moses is going to be technical directing next year's Allstate which is she kills monsters and and safe designing so but the adult team that I had for Allstate they were they made the show so much fun it was so stressful but they they were light-hearted they were like crack jokes as they walked past you in the hall it was incredible and they also know so much and then you can flip the slide again um and then I also want to just touch on the challenges of state so we had to build an entire show and I think it was like 18 days it came to we had a performance at Downers Grove South um on December 18th so we did not have that weekend to build we had to be done that weekend and ready to perform so and then right after we did that performance we packed it all up and we went to U of I where we had some stuff to finish so then we had to learn a whole new stage a whole new space because we had been a two like a tone to uh dgs's stage and now we have this whole we have this bigger space with new scene changes and like everything with like new Transitions and we were trying to put on the show I think all together we put together five performances for our time at um U of I and then the Allstate company went down a week early so we could practice those transitions finish up anything that needed to be finished and it came together and then next slide so overall I'd say that um doing the Allstate production was like top five best experiences in my entire life I met so many amazing people that I hope to keep in my life for years to come and I've learned so much from them and I have just memories that will last forever think I made it well thank you guys um yeah thank you so much thank you any questions yeah yeah I got one quick now have you been I'm sorry did your son oh have you have there been other adjudication I'm so do they interrogate all of our Inlet so essentially what it is is the process of going to state is you have to submit your show to the theater board and the reason why we've never done it before is because if I'm sure everyone remember like Mr Papa George and Mrs Velazquez they were both on the committee that shows and so if you're on a committee that chooses the show you're not your school's not allowed to submit and then additionally next year we're not allowed to submit again because Moses is the technical director and Scenic designer which means he's way too involved there and so it's there are like qualifications and they choose it based on like what's like the best show and like what's going to give the students at theater Fest like the most rounded experience there were musicals there were like more like traditional Shakespeare there were more like plays there's like a play that goes wrong it was it was a very wide selection of shows we were definitely still the Oddball but like yeah that's necessarily A Bad Thing to be the album yeah great seems like so much fun yeah we could ask for an emperor to uh it's it's a lot of work but but it's fun for for you to meet everyone and and see what it's really like to have the pressure I mean can you imagine what people are like that are on Broadway and stuff trying to get their shows produced and and that so watching them load the truck and it was really really stressful for us and we weren't doing anything yeah what if they drop something yeah oh yeah that was that cold weekend yeah yeah there were so many people there and like I think the audience really made it worth it yeah like I think everyone for us I'm sure also would save them with Shrek like the way that the audience received the show made all of like like the 10 p.m nights like the like The Sweat The Tears all of that worth it just to like hear them love the show I think overall we've performed vomiti I think six or seven times so just well we closed it in the very best way possible with the very best people with truly our family so just such a goodbye was this recorded one I think the theater Fest one was reported the original one was on the show from the original space into We performed in our own Auditorium as a benefit show for all of like the friends and family who wanted to go see it and then we have a recording of it actually at U of I okay is it is it is it available I'm not certain it's um but we're allowed to have recordings for educational purposes we have them for all of our shows just for educational archive thing so we have the recording and we just don't have yeah we'll get it sometimes excellent we want the bootleg cotton this is being recorded congratulations good answer good answer piracy is a crime yes well thank you guys all for coming thank you congratulations [Applause] next up is Caitlin so this week at South is our spirit week so we kicked off the Monday with PJ day so it was super nice you know Monday is not always the best day of the week but we got to wear our PJs to school which made a little bit better um and then we'll have different dress-up days each day of the week as well as different activities like an access I know when I was during my PE class I had to help my teacher with beaded necklaces that everyone in Access will get and then there'll be a school-wide like rock paper scissors challenge so little fun activities during the day and then last week um we had two clubs at our school that were selling blue Mustang cups kind of like the red Starbucks cup in the winter time we were selling blue cups to raise money for a shelter in Westmont for um people who need help they can go there to get resources so all the proceeds to that went to the shelter in Westmont and as a like incentive to buy the cup they were giving discounts for root beer floats so during uh your lunch period today you could have gotten a root beer float which is a fun way to celebrate spirit week and then at the end of the week we'll have our big Spirit assembly with all the sports teams kind of sharing about their season and a bunch of games like tug of war as a senior I'm really excited to win the spirit jug this year and then another big thing is the conference win for the girls basketball team I am a little biased as I am on the team but it was a big thing since it was the first time we've won since 2001.
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Mr Cerrone here Miss Doyle Mr Gatewood president Miss Johnson via phone Mr ploger present vehicle Miss Hamilton president miss Swanson president motion passes 6-0 we are not Open Session everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of the United States of America under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay 4.1 public comment on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we received from our residents and foreign interested in speaking to the Board of Education this evening are asked to have completed a common card and presented it to the second when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to five and that no Personnel matters or responses the board does not participate in the discussion during public comment follow up to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration Dvorak good evening my name is Shelly Dvorak I want to thank you very much for allowing me to have this opportunity to participate in what is important in our community um Dr sparlin thank you I mean you've done a white great job and I wish you the best in your retirement okay with that being said and done with the glasses on so I can read um I am here as a taxpayer as well as I work here in OE as a TA as you know this has been a concern for ours for months last session I know Mrs hartigan made a comment of 4.5 million dollars that's being spent on in regards to substitutions and contracts for TAS and teachers I have to tell you that was a number that just blew my mind um in a district that is you know our we're Penny pitching and I have seen it for the last 25 years it's a number that is just overwhelming frustrating not only for myself as a taxpayer but also myself as an employee of the district I'm speaking tonight in support of other taxpayers like Mrs d'alessio who has spoken before and Mrs hartigan who has also spoken as an oeta for compatriots um these ladies have discussed the fact that the members um such as the 4.5 million has been spent for the teachers substituting they also have discussed the lack of quality of the contracted support staff um as Mrs hardigan made comment at the last one a contract sub refused to do her Duty and Mrs hartigan had to be pulled from her own student to cover this this contract sub the frustration is um continue to continue uh we are doing our very best and yet we're not the ones who are being part of the discussion um I want to discuss also The Exodus of good staff due to lack of financial sustenance lack of direction from teachers and administration who are overwhelmed with their own sense of responsibilities their own Mile High care for their students and their teaching please don't get me wrong these are all many good things about our teachers and our support staff I mean we've got kids that are just doing amazing things going to State our Scholastic Falls are you know becoming going into sectionals and going to Regionals and such we have fantastic Fine Arts students who are getting gold keys at whatever conferences that they're attending we have students that who are doing well emotionally but sometimes they're not getting the support they need and then you have you know we can't forget our sports teams I mean we've got several students that I mean I mean it's amazing to see this young and man cheating his dreams and we have students that are going to State we have students are going to sectionals and doing a fantastic job so obviously our district is doing something right however there are things that we are not doing correctly and where that is start coming from the top in the essence of asking the right questions to the right people I mean you ask a teacher something that a support staff is doing can they truly answer everything in an efficiently way can they can I as a support staff say yeah the teacher is great in this class or you know this teacher's not so hot in this class well who's asking uh to continue on with all this being said um the district really needs to do a self-check we need to decide what's important the priorities of that I mean I was here the night that we were talking about the list of contracts and we couldn't get a straight answer of how many contractors that we had in that list and it was like I'm like whoa that's Financial why aren't we having this you know check and balance the frustration is here we're losing good staff and the good staff is going on to other districts so I'm really hoping that as a board we are doing these self-checks and finding and asking the questions we need to ask thank you thank you Joanne Johnson probably don't need this introduction but my name is Joanne Johnson I've been a resident of Oswego for 26 years and have had five students go through the Oswego 308 School District I have one more left who is a sophomore I will tell you that my experience as a parent and and success of my five children has been off the charts and I do attribute that to the school district and to the teachers within the school district what I will say is that all of my children have gone through the honors programs and I think that's a big part of their success as well as us as parents advocating for them to be in those programs when maybe a teacher didn't acknowledge um that that they were ready for it but you guys definitely hurt us um as far as the Gen Ed and the special ed kids those are the ones that I see that are really lagging and and falling behind and you know I was very thankful to be included in the session where um the three superintendent firms came in to present what they had to offer to our district in order to find the right person for the job I was disheartened that we have issues in the district such as academic proficiency as well as employee satisfaction and ultimately without our teachers being happy with what they're doing they're not going to be as effective in teaching our children and that is very much at the root of what is going on within our district but what I heard coming out of the gate with each one of them was talking about diversity and inclusion and to me that was disheartening not because I'm racist not because of anything other than as a parent as a taxpayer I want the very best person in the position that can take on the challenges that our district is facing I would like to see somebody who can go up to bat and can strike out and say hey I missed the ball let's try something different the relationship between the superintendent and the school board is so critical to the success of a district they have to be a team they have to have respect for each other and they have to align on the goals and ultimately we have a lot of discourse between the administration the teachers and the Board of Education now I have to acknowledge the board because I've been fully immersed for a little while now and you guys do this as a service to the public you're not getting paid for it and I know that you have absolutely taken plenty of heat and some of that heat came from yours truly would I back down and anything that that I fought for no because ultimately it was for the kids but I would like to stress that I hope and pray that when the next superintendent or even the company that's going to be helping choose the next superintendent that we aren't picking them for anything other than their capabilities and I would absolutely like to thank Miss Johnson Miss Doyle Miss Swanson and Mr pluger for supporting the school board candidates being involved in the selection process because we don't know which four of us are going to be honored to sit up there to help turn things around because we would be willfully blind if we thought that there were no issues here so I want to thank you for that because again as I said before that relationship between superintendent and board is absolutely critical to the success of our school district and our children all right item 5.1 is our annual presentation on community relationships and Partnerships report Mrs dalquist and Mrs commutis will be presenting this evening all right I believe that they're going to pull up the one page summary so you can see uh what we are talking about uh and while they are doing that I wanted to highlight that usually we have a large team uh here oh it's over there okay I'm waiting for it to be there all right we have a whole team of people that work on this Michelle early Jadon Waller Renee Sartor Denise Hildebrand and Kristen Paul I do a lot of the work around this as well so I definitely wanted to give a shout out to them what you see there at the beginning is just the goals that are listed in Envision 308 in 2026.
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foreign I see the thumbs up are we okay to start we're good okay welcome everyone uh tonight we are going to start our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance so for those who are able if you unmind standing facing the flood congratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much I have all seven board members in attendance so we do officially have a court as always we try to keep our vision mission and core beliefs in front of us to help guide us in our decision making tonight and I think our first order of business is uh from Mr Robert it is yes thanks Mrs Wilden and I love that chatter we had at the beginning of the meeting took us a little extra time to get back here and get situated but welcome everybody thank you for being here with the great reception we had to start and we do have a an appointment or we have a recommendation uh to our board tonight for an appointment to a position of director position and that position is the director of McDonald adult and alternative education center our recommendation to the board is that Mark Newell we place in that position Mark is a graduate of Columbus North High School so a bcsc product he has his Bachelor of Science in math education from Indiana University master of science and secondary education from Indiana University and also his building level administrator certification from Indiana University so Mark probably felt pretty good with things and how they went this past weekend right keep moving here I experienced Mark has been with our school corporation for a bit as well he was a math teacher at Columbus North High School for about 10 years and he took over his math department chair for Columbus East High School and Central Middle School and then was the interim Middle School assistant principal at North Side before being named as principal at Columbus East High School where he has been since 2008.
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there we go okay we will call this work session to order and um the first item is our Blue Ribbon facilities update Mr Smith if you wouldn't mind Madam president members aboard Dr Smith construction continues you'll see the West stand a big part there is getting windows up and that'll dry Us in and start eating the inside to finish this section now from the inside looking out that's the new entryway the media center a lot of walls are going up as well as the art and family consumer science areas the new pool we're open next week that the North End walls will start to be erected whether providing and continuing on with other footing that's on the east side of the state or the field house going out to the stadium new walkway and path ADA Compliant Ln New Edition again we're moving ahead for the February 13th and actually it's that weekend move into the three-story building again Furniture is in we did have the first floor [Music] checked out for substantial completion so we haven't been moving into the first floor as well the new graphics the family consumer of science we're hoping to get in there and start putting furniture in this space next week Ellen pool continues that's entryway of course the pool itself the concrete a lot of concrete still going in and progressing very well and we continue on with Belzer Middle School just FYI we'll be receiving bids for Belzer Middle School construction tomorrow afternoon and we'll be bringing some of that information uh here to the board in February March and April thank you any questions yes it's done I just have one quick question can you remind us who is going on the third floor of Lawrence North students right I'm sorry no I know that there was a freshman when my children were there at Lawrenceville at the Freshman I'm not sure exactly how that'll be building a direction of who goes where yeah that is the authority of the building principal so Mr kuznick I'm not sure Mr krauser has finalized that the whole intent for the three stories core academics go into that building along with any support services like special education but the core Academic Teams and I believe is that World Language also Mr cousin not World Language not World Language at Ln so so and so is that are they still doing the Freshman Wing do we know go ahead yeah they're still determining they've got a final plan but as we move in in a week or two they're still determining who's in every single room but um all three floors will be your main couriers of math English science and social studies and I guess as just wondering we the people that are going on the third floor will remain on the third floor and won't have to be impacted to move again now there could be throughout the phasing but okay not necessarily okay thank you and I do have also have a question um a little bit confused who's going in there are is there going to be a time on Tuesday for the students to have an orientation actually the way that's going to be setting up I don't know Dr kuzny Mr acoustie yep so just a reminder Tuesday there's no school so Tuesday the 21st there's no school and then Wednesday that's since it's a short week students will have that whole week actually for some orientation into the building oh good and how how will we do that the principal will work with his staff and teachers to make sure they have they've ordered plenty of signage because it's a brand new building no one students or teachers will really know where they're going so they'll have proper signage to to direct people around the building okay and I assume you'll be there absolutely yeah okay we will be there but bored and also the superintendent we will land on Mr krauser and his team who are the experts and as a former High School principal the experts to make sure that they schedule all of that because it is a complete turning upside down of their school building right so they have been planning for years for this big change that requires we got to get in and find out where we go and who goes where so it's obviously it's a school day yeah but we will allow time yeah they have time in order to do that that's why we've applied for an a circular stay for the staff for their transition and as well as the school doing the orientation similar to what we did at Lawrence Central High School uh we were not able for new board members we weren't able at Lawrence Central to get in during the summer so we had to do the orientation once school started in the real world you would hope that we're not gonna put any pressure on you Roger that we had this summer to do this but that's just not how the project falls out okay and so it was an orientation of every student at Lawrence Central High School and the same for Lawrence North it's going to be all new not only to The Faculty but the students but trust me the kids figured out quicker than the adults we will actually do start the transition on the 13th working in spaces getting them set up early to help minimize the total teacher move on the 18th great thank you so much I have a question and it's concerning Concrete Expansion is great right and so we know that our lovely IU Health is expanding from my understanding that they have first dibs on a lot of the concrete so I was wondering are there any concrete concerns for us or are we able to keep our timeline with them also pulling and tugging at it yeah we we have been fortunate because a lot of that was done way prior to some of these other projects so the commitment to our material has been pretty good we've had some slow down but for the most part we're on schedule all right awesome thank you sir there questions or discussion we'll go on to the next item on the agenda the recommendation for the architect for the new lecc project Madam president members board Dr Smith as you well know we send out rfps in January firms four great uh interviews took place and the committee's recommendation was to go with the Schmidt and Associates for the new lecc project and I'm on upon approval of that we'll set the stage in the timeline and the schedule for the new lecc building with the scope design plan specifications bid documents on 23 and then Construction in 24.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
all right all right and uh welcome everyone once again and Mr Walston will you be making the presentation or this becoming I will sir I will and I I just want to share uh with the committee uh what I am sharing is a is a 51-page um quick overview of the story just to make sure we I don't want to take up every minute of our time um so I'll go through it very quickly and ask if we can hold the question to the end I think you're going to find the majority of the slides you've already seen um and then leave time for the end just to kind of for any clarifying questions you might have um and so what I'm about to share again there are 51 pages in a book um Mike and John do you remember how many pages of the entire book when it's com being completed book I don't because we're thinking appendix too yeah I think it's giving you about 175 when it's all a bunch bundled up together okay and Grace just put something in the chat all right and so again there are 51 slides in this I will go to them rather quickly and there are a couple of slides in which we've made some additions and I'll make sure to stop to talk about those and so our table of contents um in which we will have pages on the side here for the book and certainly you've seen the great pictures of everyone Cabinet member slide the overall proposed budget of 150 million these pictures we've updated with our kids in Danbury public schools so all of the pictures you will see is Danbury public schools so the 64.4 percent budget request 9 million in the total of 150 million dollars and our vision and mission statement Equity statement and the two slides side by side portrait of The Graduate you saw this it was a little bit different layout before our book will read from left to right so as you see this portion of the graduate and then the three descriptors and then you'll see the next two on the other side our strategic plan and this is kind of year one of the supplementation there were six pillars of the plan and you can see them here and then the overview just really just talking about our demographics and here's our profile of course this is as of the date we made the book twelve thousand two hundred students 13 Elementary three middle one high school and here's our enrollment and then here's a breakdown of who those students are and this is a picture of Danbury High School's cafeteria for folks to get a feeling of what it's like to walk in that building during cafeteria time the unfunded mandates we spoke to this one before but I'm it's it's mentioned here intentionally um the right to read legislation uh which is certainly monies if we did not have to implement this legislation um we could be using these monies on Staffing right now um if we did not have to go from 21 credits to 25 credits um there's 25 additional teachers we would not have to hire right now but these are mandates that we have to implement um and so you just wanted to also share that reality because it certainly have an impact on our general fund budget coveted social emotional impact and so we've hired quite a bit of Staff members uh whether it's Deans whether it's social workers guidance counselors during the pandemic the wheel that you see to the left is the adoption of our social emotional platform that we look to implement here in the district but we we've continued and I know I've talked to the board about chronic absenteeism chronic absenteeism is at any point when kids are missing school so that includes suspensions that includes attendance and we are finding you know our chronic absenteeism numbers close to 24 percent which is up from about seven percent pre-pandemic I'm sorry it was around seven percent pre-pandemic so our challenges have just been multiplied um by three or four almost four um post pandemic now and here's that chronic absence number and a little definition of The Chronic absenteeism and certainly the board um feels the impact of this in our expulsion hearings um the expulsions really is just um a slice of what the real issue is around suspensions and then those kids are missing um instructional time which plays a role in chronic absenteeism for us and so this is our teacher of the year from last year and we had this in here prior to our ask as she speaks to um speaks to make making sure we resource teachers to help meet the needs of kids um as part of her speech uh maybe we thought it'll be a nice touch to also showcase her and our budget drivers and of course the wonderful day that we had with our teachers of the Year all the way across and I think the committee will recall this slide as our budget drivers we did change that back to budget drivers instead of program needs and so the big one of course is the salaries and benefits contractual obligations um I know everyone on this call has heard this already and then of course the big other pigment is a 2.6 million in enrollment increases and then here's the breakdown the 5 million for salaries 200 2.6 for enrollment I know John and Mike have walked the committee in the board through energy increases technology but this SO2 shortfall um John can you just uh quickly talk about that shortfall number uh I can't so if you remember we uh we chronicled it a little bit in one of the uh answers to board questions I think that came up the first time uh the finance committee met um it's uh primarily teachers at Danbury High School um that we uh want to move over uh into the uh general fund and you uh you heard principal Donovan talk about how important that was if you recall um when he spoke about uh asking for several years for more teachers and finally getting them uh these were the teachers he was talking about he was we were able to provide them with the with the Esser Grant thanks John and then the salaries benefits break down and so you may recall from John's previous uh presentation um the 79.7 million this year is 83.4 million next year so the same Staffing for this year is a 4.6 increase just based on contractual obligations the same is also true of benefits 4.4 increase in total we're talking five million dollars between this year's budget and next year's budget for the same Staffing and here's the enrollment growth we've been talking about and this is a table you'll see the bigger numbers um are found in the 6 through 12 lines and so year today 27 a little over 27 and a half for Middle School where it goes up to 2 800 28 plus 123.24 the high school you'll see I'm close to a little over close to 3 700 right now 37.50 projected next year over 3 800 and 24.25 and kind of flatlining at 3 800 3850 and 25 26 when the new building is expected to open and again the committee Might Recall this slide where it's so the actual number is the 11 843 so that's in the grade 12 110.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
yes that's correct oh that was scary I know the introducer wanted to make sure that we heard him superintendent please look check your Donny Vice chair Kim members of the committee chiefayashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on a certain testimony offering comments on this measure thank you for the opportunity to testify members any questions thank you may um just add a little about um yeah okay a question I mean thank you um of the efforts of uh both um Deputy superintendent Chum and Deputy superintendent of the girl um Deputy Chan has as boy chair has mentioned has been instrumental in helping to coordinate efforts between the department and the board office Board of Education Office and staff she's also uh very instrumental in working together with the board on Crafting and working on the Strategic plan as well as the Opera implementation plan um she has been also uh uh coordinating the Department's relations with the legislature she it works together with our policy Brands tracking uh a number of bills 887 bills um out of the over 3 000 bills uh for as one part of what she does in in working to move our department forward also at the pretty old to grow um has been very instrumental in accelerating the funding uh supports for Moe uh he has encumbered in the last month uh 80 million dollars by encompasses or where I believe we were a month ago uh less than 5 million uh he also has been working together with uh County mayor of Department of Transportation high school and working to move forward in hoping to give get a cool open also he's been layers on him with uh school facilities Authority uh with any governor's office eoel and other members of office or facilities and operations uh regarding preschool classes for the Department of Education so these two additional positions are very important to the department and we are very fortunate to to have them working with us thank you thank you superintendent members questions I believe that is the last of the testifiers um recess reconvening the committee on education the recommendation of the chair is to pass out Senate Bill 105 relating to education regarding the quarter report on autism spectrum disorder to an annual report is to pass as is on Senate Bill 816 oh I'm sorry why testing if you press Senate Bill 105 president Senator Richard aye and Senator five five the measure is adopted you want it to be adopted don't you I do thank you Vice chair that's why we have a vice chair it's not that she's just here for her good looks yeah right thank you Senate Bill 816 relating to computer science recommendation of the committee is to defer Senate Bill 830 relating to Emergency Medical Response recommendation of the chair committee is to pass with amendments we are adopting the testimony from the Department of the AG and we'll be including the recommendation to replace public school on page two line five with Department School inserting the word area on page four line two between conflicts and superintendent adding an additional subsection to the new section to address potential liability of critical emergency response team members any person who acts in accordance with the requirements of this section shall be immune from any civil or criminal liability arising from these acts except for the person's conduct would constitute gross negligence willful and wanton misconduct or intentional misconduct recommendation is Senate Bill 830 a password amendments tripled side Vice chair of what size oh I'll probably do this any member here voting with reservations any members president of voting no if not five members presence they are in recommendations okay Senate Bill 280 recommendation is to defer Senate Bill 289 recommendation is to defer and Senate Bill 290 recommendation is to pass with amendments including Technical and non-substantive amendments this is Senate Bill 29 passive amendments chair Bull's Eye okay Senate Bill 290 passed with the Amendments chairwoodside Vice chair votes any member voting with reservations any member voting in uh opposition hearing not all five members voting on recommendations about to share thank you the ansys meeting thank you
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so it's been like 20 years since we won conference so it was a big deal to us and we're looking forward to our regional game next week which is actually against Sounders North so a little match up again but uh we're looking forward to that and then a new thing that we're bringing back since covid is our turnabout Winter Dance we had it I went to It For the First Time freshman year and we haven't had it since so bringing that back will be fun just giving students another thing to do during the winter and again just building Community Building off of our spirit week so exciting week ahead for us yay very good thank you yes and good luck yeah thank you I know Downers Grove will win yes guaranteed we will cheer for both sides okay do we have anybody I have no comments no comments for the stuff for visitors so we'll move on to the board Workshop review of State accountability measures all right uh as we're heading into uh the time of year that is assessment season everybody's taking standardized tests uh we're bringing back some of the information we shared back in the fall September and November around that time uh and then in response to some information that um we've seen circulated or shared in a variety of settings we just want to make sure that we are clear in the messaging of how this information is interpreted and used there is a wealth of information in the Illinois state report card but a lot of it is numbers without background so without knowing some of the history or how the the tests are structured or those kinds of things it's easy to to misinterpret some of the information that's there so just as we head into this next season of accountability we just want to take an opportunity to share a couple of things so as the board has seen a lot of this before this is going to be a pretty high overview of some of this but if you have questions Jump On It just to review that we receive a designation where both schools are commendable that has calculated 75 percent off the academic indicators and 25 off the Student Success set indicators these indicators are based on Research as to what are the the things that predict post-secondary success so obviously graduating from high school is the goal the primary goal of high school right and is the greatest predictor of post-secondary success so that's where you where you end up with these different weights that are in there you know so things like um sat English and math are weighted much lower they themselves are not great predictors of post-secondary success in combination with other things like GPA and activities at school and those you know building that whole portfolio of students is what really predicts post-secondary success and that's why you you're seeing colleges move to test optional settings or you know those types of things and they want to see the full breadth of a student's experience to better predict if they're going to be successful After High School same thing if you're going directly from high school into the world of work they're not looking at your test scores right they want to know what you have done what your skills are what you're prepared to do we talked more in detail about this in November I want to dive into all of these pieces but that's the big overview of how our score is determined you go on the website you'll see a variety of different pieces of performance snapshot graduation rate is at 94 percent from last year where it where we were pre-pandemic and a reminder for the board that currently any student that continues in special education is a reduction in that graduation rate so students that are continuing at t99 or in the special education program with us count against that graduation rate and we're currently working with the Lend mandate committee and policy committee Dr Prentiss from Hinsdale and I have been working on legislation that will be introduced in this legislative session to correct that so that our t99 students and students continuing in special education don't count against our graduation rate as it does there do we know what it is two or three percent higher yeah is that what it is okay I mean we could calculate that's that's really a yeah a bad number because well and I'm going to illustrate a couple of these tonight where Illinois does it different than other states and it actually makes schools in Illinois look worse than schools in other states because of the decisions we've made in in just how we calculate the numbers like this right um so uh graduation rate remains strong comparatively uh ninth grade on track remember that's you know what we're looking at that first year of high school and how are they getting enough credits to graduate at the end uh and we're we've spent a lot of time last year and then again this year uh making sure that we're getting as many students on track as possible and then if a student isn't on track we're really focusing on that next year to make sure we catch them up so that they're on track to graduate uh chronic absentee rate was at 23.3 percent I will tell you that number is higher this year absenteeism at school actually in work and across the country is uh a thing that is much higher than it has been in the past we're still uh lower than other schools in DuPage County and across the state however this is a number that's ticked up this year in the first semester and we're working really hard at both schools to try to drive that number back down do we have an idea of why it seems to be this guy I mean is it kids work from home for for two years right so there's a there is definitely a perception of I can work from home and I'll be okay the other thing is we've worked really hard to make sure that we're supporting kids when they're out of school so before it would really negatively penalize a lot of students if they were out and we've done a lot of things to support students when they're out so the impact of being out consequences is not as as tough plus we're encouraging everybody if you're sick stay home right we went through multiple years of a pandemic and we've told everybody if you don't feel well stay home and then there's a big push around mental health right with mental health days and those kinds of things where we're saying if you're so stressed if you need a day to catch up if uh you know you need to go see somebody take that time and do that so all of those things are those days don't count right so are we working uh with with the state maybe to change the way that is reported also yeah we're trying but because you know if if you're if we're encouraging kids to stay home if they're not feeling well or if they're having you know uh stress issues and things you know should that really be counted against us that is a great question that we are working on at the state level but okay all right yeah but those things have changed since these accountability measures were well I think covet has changed a lot of things in our lives and uh some for the better and some for not the better but um you know holding us accountable for some things is not always well and the answer either it used to be we were talking about this in our leadership team the other day chronic absenteeism used to be a predictor that you were likely to fail that is no longer the case anymore we have students that are meet that threshold of chronic absenteeism that are getting straight A's they're getting their work done they're coming and meeting with our student with their teachers during access and resource during office hours they're being productive and they're proving that they've that they're learning is what we expect that their performance is what we expect so it's not as much of a predictor as it was back when they were writing these accountability measures so things are different now we just need to you know eventually respond to those changes in the world yeah and I'd be curious to see if those students um you know like in college or or in the workforce if that is is carrying on and what their success rate is that would be very interesting we'll have to see how the world changes moving forward they say that's always been the piece that we've been missing though Terry just about everything you know we don't know I mean we don't get to our our partner districts get all the feedback from us so it's much easier for say District 58 or 68 to look at how their students are matriculating and how they perform here and where they where they have some difficulty and then focus on those things we don't get there isn't a Next Level that that sends information back to us don't we have questionnaires that have gone out to ourselves sure we have that but but it's not they're not always reliable information right you get a very low response rate yeah yeah people moved on from high school at that point yeah so you know but the all those things that we were looking at before are all things that are pretty well proven that these are the these are the these are the uh experiences and talents and and knowledge approach that you need to be successful After High School no matter what it is that you're going to do right it's a pro it's predicting success absenteeism is full day right and you need to be it's it's very complex you need to be in school for 300 minutes to be counted to be there for a full day so anytime you're here for less than 300 minutes you're absent in terms of the stats in terms of the yeah the calculation that goes to the state it may not appear that you're like if you're looking at pieces of a day so it's stupid okay but it's calculating each half day and it goes on the number of days of school that school year or for that student so even a student who comes later in September is not going to have the same number of school days as a student is with us from the start of school but it's 10 of the school year okay very complicated here yeah all right uh SAT scores so we've looked at these a variety of ways over the years and have I as I've explained uh to the board repeatedly right that really the best way to look at a standardized test score is in the series of tests where you could test a student the same student year over year and measure their growth over time but a combination of switching test scores the pandemic all of those pieces is made it so that has not been possible for us the next best thing is to compare a group of students to the students taking that test that year because they've all come up at the same time through similar conditions and when you go to apply for a university if they are using those scores you're in that cohort that's all being compared to one another so what I've done here for the board to kind of give you an idea of that over time is I've taken our district and I've con converted that score for that year is if our district was a student in the country right so you could see how we would compare to all the other students across the country if District 99 was a kid that makes sense and that's what the percentile shows us is where we would fall uh year to year you can see this is why it gets difficult comparing groups of kids to groups of kids right um you really need to compare them to themselves it's really hard for us to know did we fail our kids in math in 2018 or was that just a group of students that like math wasn't their thing it's hard hard to know that so 2019 we were at 61 61st percentile across the country so if you lined us up with all the other kids we'd be at that 61st spot right the next year we dropped down to 40.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above