Reader — Discourse Corpus

2023-09-26 Kendall County, IL YouTube / BOE Stream transcript source: youtube SD308 Board of Education (9/25/2023) · passage 1

for September 25th 2023 can I have a roll call please Mr Sone here Mr Gatewood present M Johnson Dr marel here she said here Mr present Miss s present Miss present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay 4.1 a public hearing on fisal year 2024 budget we will now hold a public hearing on the f fiscal year 2024 budget we will therefore have two opportunities for public comment tonight the first opportunity will be during the public hearing on the fiscal year 2024 budget if you wish to make a comment about the fiscal year 2024 budget please make it during the public comment portion of that hearing if you wish to make a comment about other matters unrelated to the public hearing you may do so during the second opportunity for public comment please make sure that you noted that you note on the comment card during which portion you wish to speak okay for the public hearing this is a public hearing convened by the Board of Education of community Unit School District 308 regarding the fiscal year 2024 budget at this time I will ask each member of the Board of Education the district's attorney and the district administrators who will speak to identify the M elv for the record at this time I would like to ask our administrators to give any additional information and updates on the fiscal year 2024 budget thank you can you hear me you have a comment yes okay thank you good evening my name is Amanda Amanda we have we have an public comment first thank you Amanda Mr harburger so harer bur 57 burough drive over Ino Gates Creek um I did send some comments to the board and I wanted to make some additional comments tonight so for the past decade I've seen the same PowerPoint that shows high level Deltas but it never really died dives into what's really going on and if you instead back up and look over the past decades you can start to see very insightful things like if you go down to General Administration what percent changes have happened from 2012 2013 to today that number is 800% so that's a public record so when people challenge you're too topheavy your own data suggests that and if you start dissec ing everything by percent you can start to understand how things have changed the missing part in this whole budget process is showing the changes and then deep diving into that and explaining explaining it to the general public how many citizens actually go through that ISB form am I the only one does the board go through it that way you have to dive into the details and follow the money there's a lot lot of good information in there but there's never Dialogue on it right why did some of these percents change right your top level budget changed 164% 150% so if there's a specific row that changed by 300 or 400 let's dig deeper and explain it it's never been explained to even the finance committee and I've been on the finance committee for multiple years never bothered to be explained so when the community pushes back on tax rate and property taxes why is that is that because they see their tax bill and don't understand where it's going probably part of the part of this role of the Board of Education and the administrators is to educate the community are you doing that I don't think you are so my ask is and you can't you've inherited this a lot of you are new to this you've inherited it so you're not going to change it for this budget cycle but over the next couple budget Cycles how can you dig into this and better explain it as a set of Administrators and as a board by asking more questions of the administrators to dig deeper and explain it that's my ask start educating the Community Drive The Narrative of why you're doing what you're doing I don't see that narrative I've been a resident since February of 2001 I started getting very active in the finance committee when it first started we never had the narrative never I've suggested this percent change method probably a decade ago and every time I suggest it it's too much work it's too difficult and that's been from various CFOs okay I'm not saying the current one but that's been my past history with CFOs oh that's beyond on the bare minimum that's too much work it's really not that much work to pluck out key numbers and start doing percent change why am I wired that way I'm a practicing engineer for over 28 years a lot of what I do is look at percent change okay so if I've got a current product in the market and I'm doing a new product development I'm looking for how big of a change there was and if somebody proposes a design change that's 25% we're going to have to do a lot of work to figure out if that'll work versus a half a 1% so percent change by dollar and by percent is an effective way to drive down and figure out where the money was going and where the money is now going my ask next budget cycle do a better job than just that one PowerPoint that I've seen in the same format for the last decade thank you Mr HB thank you thank you okay 4.2 update on the fiscal year 2024 budget Raphael oaimi will now give his update on the fiscal year 2024 budget and now the board asks members of the public to comment on the fiscal year 2024 budget do we do that already yeah we we did all this okay okay good evening thank you um so on August 22nd the tentative budget was reviewed by the board and placed on public display at our local library and at our business office at 71 Stonehill don't you talk into the microphone I think it's good we're being told it's she's on the computer can you hear me now is that better yes today is our fiscal year 24 Bud public budget hearing nothing has changed since the original tentative budget was proposed our mission in the business office and as a district is to build trust with our community and stakeholders through transparency Clarity and communication of District finances what you see here is a summary of the fiscal year 24 budget operating funds District revenues as we have discussed come from local state and federal funds approximately 58% of those come from local property taxes so if we look here we can see the different revenues and expenditures um in the Ed fund the onm fund the transportation fund working cash and then the total what I want to point out is the transportation fund does have a deficit of $4.9 million which is what we're seeing across the country based on the rising Transportation cost we do have a plan to Levy more this year to um take take care of that um in working cash we see a $22 million fund balance largely due to our bond proceeds which leaves us a total estimated fund balance of 57 Million by June 2024 this is a balanced budget once the budget is adopted by our Board of Education we will file with each of our County clerks within 30 days it will also be electronically submitted on the official ISB form posted on our district website and a copy will be sent to the Regional Offices of Education in our counties that's all I have any questions from the board just have one it's not really a question but um help me me out with this so evidence-based formula um by the state was created basically because there were certain factors in each state that or each district I apologize that was going to cost varying degree of of money right and so when they figure out this um calculation they look at many factors of the student population to figure out the true cost and correct me wherever I'm wrong um and if I remember correctly here's one example um our El population I want to say since 2015 remember this Dominic I think it's doubled which would be a correct me if I'm wrong but if it's doubled you're talking about a 100% increase in our El population as is one example um I guess my point in my question is we've had tremendous growth to say the least in this District at one point we were the fastest growing County in the um in the United States I guess my my question or my point is how or I don't want to say how but clearly these things will affect a budget and and what our expenses are am I wrong or you're absolutely right sir thank you yeah and I think uh bringing in the op some there were some major things that changed in how our budget looked over the years yeah I was going to say the historical piece there is the uh the effect of bringing in the the co-op for sure losing the co-op the you're talking about the special I'm sorry bringing in bringing in in bring the resour bring in house yes that that did have significant impact on the district's finances yes did I'm actually uh doing a presentation later on in this meeting about uh the the uh ebf and I'm going to do a series of them the first one tonight is going to be an introduction to what ebf is and then I hope to dive more into it every board meeting so that folks in our community understand better what ebf is and how it impacts the district's finances thank you very good all right 4.3 close public hearing at this time we will close the public hearing 5.1 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 members of the public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their Public School System members of the public interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your 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 5 minutes per person and that no discussion of personnel matters stating staff names or responses to your questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment followup to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you lesie killo hello my name is lesie Calo I'm a bingo eighth grader in Spanish and history classes I'm here because I feel you should have a student's point of view on the effects of a teacher lless classroom today September 25th I came to school hoping and wishing that I would have a teacher that was fluent in Spanish that would present stay present and would inform me on things when they happened I really took it slow when turn the corner to see an empty classroom this isn't new though in sixth grade I went through three different teachers before finally finding a permanent teacher who supported us constantly and made personal connections with this which is something I value in a teacher on Friday September 22nd my parents received an email informing families that Administration and I quote is working with human resources to secure a bilingual substitute the email didn't specify much other than that my questions are what standards are the teachers being held to what can I expect as a student has been through many teachers in just the first weeks of school I honestly feel disappointed and discouraged and I don't really feel like participating in class fully matters anymore however I'm here hoping that my voice will be heard and changes will be made Dr katti you've asked how are the children well let me tell you we're not [Music] okay oh my gosh Michelle [Music] trer good evening happy fasd month but that's not why I'm here tonight um I have two eighth grade daughters who are classmates of Leslie's um they couldn't be here tonight because of their activities and honestly this was last minute based on the events of today that those of us decided it was important to come tonight as Leslie mentioned this current group of E grade DL students for those of you that aren't aware when they were in sixth grade their social studies teacher left six weeks into the year she let she let the district know that this would be what happened if she didn't feel she was compensated correctly and she followed through we had a substitute for six weeks he suddenly stopped showing up when you looked in Tyler CIS for those six weeks no grades were entered at all for any of our students during that time when I asked the the principal at that time he said he didn't have any idea he didn't know for six weeks so you can imagine when this cohort is now eighth graders and we are encountering the same situation we have an assigned teacher who came maybe two days the first 11 days of school and then stopped showing up we have had a bilingual substitute who's been fairly consistent in those DL 8th grade classes however we knew that the assigned teachers last day of leave was Friday this past Friday we also knew that the sub was not going to continue subbing in those DL rooms after Friday there was a meeting on September 14th at plank many topics were covered one parent asked why there is no honors level social studies class for DL students as there are for NL the elll director told parents that if we wanted students to work at honors level just email them and they can make that happen that's the first time any of us had ever heard of that and it still wouldn't be designated an honors class the way it would for ndl students they should be differentiating instruction anyway which isn't happening for those kids who can use more academic rigor I've asked numerous times for information on what the actual curriculum is this year for the Spanish language arts at curriculum night the elll director just said they're reading The House on Mango street they're not doing that for the whole entire year all the other ndl classes for my students laid out the various units each grading period will be and why those things were chosen I was told there is an SLA curriculum if that's the case why so mysterious why so reluctant to let the parents know what that is because we still haven't been given that information at that meeting I asked and clarified are we to expect rotating Subs again because we know that September 22nd is the last day of the leave for the assigned teacher so the position can't be posted and we don't know if that person's returning we also know that the bilingual sub has stated that's the last day then as Leslie mentioned we received an email at 4M on Friday saying we will let you know when we find bilingual teacher but they didn't want to tell us what's going to happen on Monday just send your kid and trust that you know what you're doing well I can tell you what happened today my fifth grade my eighth grade student who had fifth period history had a random Ela teacher filling in when both my students had eighth gr 8th period SLA there was no teacher students were texting their parents in real time saying we are alone with no teacher a student took attendance and another student ran it down to the office after 7 to 10 minutes a biling teaching assistant and a Dean showed up nth period history was taught by a random science teacher with that bilingual ta this is not a situation where a lot of teachers called in sick this was a situation we all knew was coming that was explicitly asked about I did not expect that there would be a miraculous find of a Spanish language teacher by today but I did expect there would at least be a plan for coverage now the upper administration of this District greatly encouraged us to work with building level leadership on this and I will say Dr Craig I feel is trying to take this program under her Wing but she was given no information about the history of this program she had to hear it from me when I requested a meeting with her she is also not solely responsible we need leadership in the Dual language program how long are we supposed to wait 15% of the school year is now gone and 25% of my kids educational day is Dual language how much longer do we wait while there's still such a vacuum of leadership at the program level at that meeting on September 14th the first question asked by a parent was whether or not the DL program was going to continue and she was told yes while the district may not be actively dismantling it I am very fearful of it collapsing at the junior high level I never thought I would consider this but I may have to pull my kids out this close to the finish line because in good conscience I cannot continue to let them waste 25% of their educational day with no end in sight thank you thank you thank you Carolyn Andrews hi good evening my name is Carolyn Andrews I actually work in the district at bner Hill um I'm also piggybacking on the Dual language program I have two children of mine that are in it I've had three kids in the district total and I have one at Boulder Hill and one at plank um like Michelle has said it's been very frustrating and all of us again we feel like we're repeating the same thing as sixth grade um the sub that was taking over I had emailed never got a response back concerned about my son's grade I will say Dr Craig did respond um but the sub did not um there's also um my child included and staff members that work in the Dual language program have told me it is not always in Spanish that is not okay um I have people in the Dual language program who are working at plank reaching out and like pushing parents to help do something that's a problem um another issue I feel like and I know Dr Craig can't do anything about the paast but if this keeps rolling over it seems like there's an issue with curriculum and the teacher is getting support with it if something's not done it's just going to keep rolling over of teachers quitting or leaving because of stress I don't there seems like there's like a disconnect between Elementary d L and Junior High I I work at Boulder Hill so I see both and there there just seems to be some kind of Disconnect where the teachers do not get support come junior high level it seems like they are doing a lot on their own opposed to getting help with the curriculum um with that I completely understand that it's not always feasible to find Subs um you know that are bilingual I mean teachers in general are stressed out so I completely understand that but when we're told that there is going to be a replacement like Michelle said we knew this was coming and now there wasn't my son told me today Dr Craig was in there subbing which again I appreciate that but there really needs to be somebody in there that's Bilal um let's see if anything else um besides that honestly I just you know I used to be really excited and like say like brag about the program but tell people like no apply get your kids in dual language like it's a great opportunity and it's actually kind of in Paris now thank you thank you thank you Mr harburger Wayne harburger 457 burough drive over in Gates Creek so I almost talked on this topic about a month ago I think Ursula saw me at the meeting and was surprised I didn't talk I was trying to let this work itself out I have foed the contract for the tennis courts it said start no sooner than June 12th it said start by August 15th which is the day before school so if you just read the contract you got to ask where are they going to practice for tryy outs and everything else the answer is they were going all over the place they were going to Yorkville they were going to other school districts they were riding the bus so the district was encouraging or incurring additional costs in the form of transportation and if I remember correctly that Department's a little strained so you're adding additional strain on an already strained situation to get the girls wherever since OE was finished and that's another interesting thing is the OE contract had the same dates so who in their right mind decided to work on both tennis courts in the same year hm sounds like poor planning to me so simple project due one year big project due the next year the communication back has been pretty bad I sent not one but three emails to the head of building and operations I got a very quick response from the ad who is always good I got a pretty flippant response back from building and operations I ask for this topic to be on a board meeting based on the latest policy I don't know how a taxpayer adds an agenda item to a board meeting the policy used to allow me to send an email and ask for it the policy does not state that so I will formally ask as a taxpayer how am I allowed to add an agenda item onto this board meeting superintendent provided a verbal update I drive by about every day to check on this supposed to be done for conference think conference is next Thursday have my doubts have my doubts so again we've we've improvised we're doing everything over here at East including senior night but I just got to ask questions right where's the communication I'm a parent I'm a guardian I'm a taxpayer the staff isn't responding and then I also have to ask about execution right where's the execution of getting it done then I notice then I notice on tonight's agenda is on the as we East track when I read that through that email I've got more questions and answers and I emailed the board on these questions but more questions and ask answers what's the review process why did the bid go out and get accepted and now we're doing changes driven by the OE team building administrators and athletic department now you're looking at a bill for another half million okay last time I checked all I hear is we need more money we're broke should that have been halted sometime this early summer and rebid how is how do I as a taxpayer know you're now getting the lowest bid on that job right got lots of questions I hope the board asks lots of questions back to building and operations and at the end of the day the communication from one individual is pathetic and it needs to be reflected on his reviews okay communication pathetic and execution is also pathetic so I don't know what the board can do but there's definitely an area for improvement with people in the building and operations area lack of communication and lack of execution is not helping parents and Guardians know how to plan and doing change orders late and not rebidding is costing the taxpayer more money right half a million dollar more give me a break thank you we want to now welcome um two individuals we're going to be doing a presentation Jeremy Bell and Mike freze I'm sorry Bailey will be joining us this evening for a presentation on our school safety as you know being proactive in school safety is an extremely important part of it tonight you're going to hear board really a focus on more some of the both technical elements of this that have really to do with how we develop and I've heard this once before the hard outside of our system versus the internal we know that there is a big emphasis on social emotional learning that we're building in our district but this is really about those practices that are focused on bringing uh firm outside to our district related to safety good evening Board of Education uh District administrators student ambassador and visitors um my name is Jeremy Bell I'm the executive director of student services with me I have Bailey Campbell assistant director student services and another member of our team that is not here tonight who had unfortunately a previously established uh family event um is Mike frers he's our coordinator for School Safety and Security um tonight we're going to talk a little bit about um some highlevel Safety and Security items some of this um is U information that was shared out um at last year's uh board meeting in terms of um some of the things that we're continuing with um but we do have new board members so we wanted to make sure we had that information shared out as well um I hear Miss Johnson often talk about what is the purpose and what is the why um and so we wanted to make sure that we LED with that um if you look at uh in terms of student services Safety and Security is only one aspect of our department um it's a large aspect but it's still only one aspect of our department um we try to link and connect everything that we do um each and every time when we have initiatives when we have um oversight um and you can see see here how we've connected uh there it's bolded for you here in terms of board priorities climate for learning uh Envision 308 and with the district Equity statements we're going to talk a little bit about what we've done over the course of the last school year to keep our sd308 family safe when we talk about Safety and Security our approach really starts with planning um we did move to monitoring we evaluate um needs and then we respond to those needs in terms of planning we always look at the vulnerabilities that exist within our schools within all of the spaces that uh within the district we want to increase um any mitigation strategies we can to reduce those vulner reduce those vulnerabilities we evaluate um process and Trends and we build those layers filters and barriers the first way in which we do that is by our emergency response plans we refer to these as erps this is a large document that is housed at each building the first part of that document if you were to walk into any of our buildings has a general context of how to deal with particular emergencies or crisis situations that may occur the second part of that document or the second part of that U manual would be building specific information with engineer building Engineers um uh particular individuals that would be helping and assisting with a given crisis or emergency this Erp is modeled after the uh IC and Nims um kind of platform those are incident commands um and and and national uh ways in which to respond to a crisis event second uh effort of planning is school drills um we we are required um annually to provide um drills to staff and students um not all of our drills um in terms of our Alice drills for example have students in the building some of those we do um specifically with staff to make sure that they feel equipped to deal with a situation that may occur but you can see that last year we conducted over 286 drills throughout the district why would we do so many drills do we have to do so many drills we have the capacity to scale some of that down but we've elected to continue um to put as much uh ownership on drilling with our buildings and with our staff so that they are ready in the event um that response is needed a big lift last year um active visitor management um our in in collaboration with our technology department our building design operations we were able to put new call boox cameras at all main point of entry in all of our buildings these cameras are crystal clear I don't know if you've had the opportunity to see them but they're Crystal clear they audio and video record um full-time um and what we've done is relocate some of those to outside of that uh initial vestib area we found that some of uh those initial vestib areas when people would gain access to our buildings even if it wasn't fully inside they still had the capacity um to either pull a fire station or something like that a pull station which would essentially send all of our kids out and we wouldn't know who was at the front door active visitor management continued Raptor Technologies we use raptor every time you go into a building you need to have your ID it is scanned through Raptor raptor is directly tied to the Illinois State uh State uh police database but one of the things we've also started to do is also started to load in our court orders our orders of protection and other um uh paperwork that we may receive um in order to protect those people coming in trying to gain access to our kids all right the next section in our security and safety response is monitoring so we are responsible for monitoring um and providing a number of Avenues in order to collect information this information is collected across a number of different platforms and the beautiful thing about it is that it's continuous and in real time so something that you hear um in our district a lot is see something say something this is the premise that we use to protect our students and staff and encourage throughout the district one of the ways that we collect information is through our 308 incident reporting form so this is present on our sd38 website and then again present on all of our school's websites as well this is a tool that our students our staff our community members can cons can submit a online report they can do so by providing their name or they also can do so anonymously another option is our Illinois safe to help this is a Statewide initiative um last year we actually started printing this information on the back of all of our student ID cards so they have a number of ways to reach out via a free app a text message a phone call and of course the website as well and again this is a anonymous tip line for school safety related issues another way that we monitor data and um is securely securely is a comprehensive analysis system that monitors our students um Google sweet platform so this is their email anything that they're writing on Google Documents Google Slides Google Sheets and again this is providing realtime notification um building leaders and District leadership actually get a notification based on the analysis of what's happening through that securely platform which is a third party program um it then ranks those um alerts and gives that information to us so that we can respond it also tracks the web searches as well so like Google YouTube things of that nature when this data set was pulled um 82% of our flags for security were actually happen happening during the school day um surveillance cameras uh this is something that again is another big project um at the beginning of last school year there was just over 795 total cameras and at that time there was three buildings that had no cameras whatsoever by the end of that last school year and to start this school year we now have over 845 total cameras and we're proud to say that all of our buildings have at least 10 cameras and that does not include the call boxes that Jeremy just mentioned which also provides an additional Camera and Video feature kind of that next phase of safety and securities evaluation um whenever we get uh notice whether that's via the incident tip line securely a Community member a staff member an administrator we kind of all go into evaluation mode the number one way in which we do that is through uh the threat assessment process uh last year we were required to provide our threat assessment process to the Roe um and so we have submitted that um what we did last year was work with the district threat assessment leadership team and um uh we utilized the seag model uh sorry I don't have to memorize comprehensive School threat assessment guidelines um refer to that as the seag model that is kind of the gold standard for threat assessment um it provides a clear flow chart um for all of our our buildings um to be able to kind of um walk through in the event that we receive a threat I will tell you that um the district Improvement team or sorry not the district the district threat assessment team last year um went through the level one and level two training um through the seat stag model uh through navigate 360 to be able to um provide uh real time uh support and consultation um this year we'll talk a little bit but we're looking to do threat assessment teams um throughout the district um specifically at every building in the secondary another way in which we evaluate the potential need for uh support is mental health screening again this is not the core function of uh the Safety and Security process but it is a way in which we receive information that we may need to respond to mental health screening um as I said is not that function however we do review the CRS the cssrs data which is our suicidality screening this is not a full diagn IC um tool it is simply a screening measure in the event that we um are alerted to a student that may be in need okay and then we come to response so in the event we need to respond to an incident we work to define the problem to determine that response based on a number of um plans and procedures that can then be activated and of course two- a communication between our community community our family and our First Responders so sometimes when we're responding to incidents that that does look like a 911 call um approximately last year we had 95 calls now note that was made from District extensions um and we are working to be able to track those calls that are also made this year outside of that District extension um so roughly speaking that's about one call for every two school days last year in addition to those 95 EMS related calls we also had 44 fire related calls so totaling 139 calls and you can see that it's kind of been for you based on building fire related and EMS related now in addition to the fire and EMS we also have police service calls the police service calls same thing are divided by building they're also divided by municipality so we also have oigo Aurora Kendall County Sheriff's Office clean field and Montgomery and the total is roughly 681 um mentioned earlier in the presentation was Alice as this is a response and option based strategy um that our entire sd308 staff is trained in and has received again training this year um Alice is one of the most recognized responses um for critical violent incidents or active shooter incidents um and Alice again stands for alert lock down inform counter and evacuate we talked a little bit about the things that we monitored last year um um the uh data sets in which we pull information um how we plan how we monitor how we evaluate how we respond where are we going in in terms of Safety and Security it's not a One-Stop shop that you can come to our department um and and have all the answers we have to work interde departmentally with building and operations with technology um with Educational Services um each and every day um we value those uh those connections um it's it's critical um and it's it's something that we have to own together what are our plans going forward our plans going forward are to continue with initial and recertification of Alice on the e-learning platform navigate 360 anyone that has an sd308 email is able to access the online learning modules in terms of Alice that's Alice for schools but there's also additional Alice um modules if someone wanted to participate they can take a look at those as well this is the simplest way that we have found to get a uniform message out that doesn't have a lot of variance in it we have trained trainers within the district there should be one at each of our uh buildings so each one of our administrators or at least one administrator at that building is a trained Alice trainer and can walk through additional circumstances tabletops or training needs based on what that building has but in terms of leveling um what we need need all staff to know um this is what we've elected to utilize and it's been uh successful so far um in terms of threat assessment what we want to do and I referenced this earlier is we want to have threat assessment teams or individuals capable of managing the threat at each building level now school code will identify that you need specific individuals at each on each team in order to assess that threat a school counselor a social worker um a school psychologist an administrator law enforcement to name a few we don't have that level of resource at every building so we need to make sure that we have teams associated with each of those spaces to be able to respond in the event that there is a threat made I will tell you that every 911 call and every threat um that is made comes through our office to some degree we're notified immediately we pick it up unse securely um or we're being notified by law enforcement and so we're actively um supporting those buildings um each and every time that thre comes through SE stag level two then that threat assessment level two is more um uh case management tabletop discussions and walking through each of those pieces Bailey myself and Mike freeders are getting trained to be trained the trainers in that seag level two uh process um early in October and so we will be able to deliver that um level two training to all of our staff um uh that are trained in in the level one development of a 3 five and 10 year plan with regards to our security cameras as as Bailey said we started the year last year with three of our buildings that had no cameras whatsoever now keep in mind that this is not an active surveillance situation where we have someone Manning a a a station and they are actively surveilling all of those cameras we use this as an investigation tool we use it as a Safety and Security measure in the event that we're alerted to something whether that's during school hours or after school hours but we want to make sure that our our ability to investigate is uh as good as it can be and we want to have some Equity within all of our buildings um and so part of our our our look looking uh our planning this year is going to be looking at where those inequities exist what our refresh Cycles need to be where our warranties uh currently sit and we want to work with Finance we want to work with technology and we want to work with operations to be able to uh provide you with that most upto-date information and understand what that planning aspect is going to look like and then the last piece of this is reunification man now we already have reunification plans established in some of our emergency response plans but what we've recognized and attended some training um and what we we've looked at when we've uh talked to some surrounding districts and surrounding counties is that there's a lot more work than be that can be done around reunification in the event that we had to evacuate a building not necessarily for a mass casualty event but for uh a gas leak or something to that end we we need to make sure that we are communicating to the general public and to the parents that we will reunite your children your child with you and we will do it in a seamless fashion that doesn't create panic and hysteria so we want to continue that work and plan for what we would need to do to really roll that out with some robust um training and priority okay there's other there's many other aspects to Safety and Security we hit on a couple High Lev ones did not get into the weeds with some of these we' T we can talk about mass communication systems we can talk about Window Films we can talk about all of these things that you may hear from some of our surrounding districts that have been uh engaging in um but we wanted to kind of keep it a little succinct for you this time any questions um um p uh slide 13 and 14 just curious as to what what type of awareness programs are you using so that students are aware of these options when it comes to alerting um the district about concerns or issues where where does this kind of information lie um I would imagine it needs to be something that's consistently being put it put in a place where they know it's there that it's being talked about about those types of things sure yeah so um previous to stepping into this role I was an assistant principal at plank Junior High School um so I can speak a little bit about what that looks like at the junior high level um we direct a lot of our students or we did direct a lot of our students through the use of QR codes throughout the um office spaces and student services and our social worker counselor's office because a lot of times they're coming to those um those those staff members and if they're not necessarily reporting that information directly to a staff member at least having them present throughout the building um we do push that out too um in our principal newsletters when they're sending those um newsletters home weekly updates to parents and including those links in there um and then the Illinois saf to help I did mention that information is posted on the back of all of our student IDs um and on the website as well very good thank you just just an observation I don't expect you to have an answer for this CU I did not send this ahead but um so I'll make it an observation um one of the things that I noticed as I looked through this was um the elementary schools that were listed as far as um police service calls while there was the ones that were listed seem to be kind of the same I noticed that there were some not listed U that's observ a number one not because I don't think we didn't list them because we asked the same question right because they didn't have service right that's that's where I was going with that um the second is I noticed that Murphy is significantly lower than the other uh junior highs and the third piece is that I notice o is about 50% higher than OE so um as far as uh service calls cuz I think it's like 75 around 75 more we can we can argue the exact number and that's about half of what Asos or ASO easts are so it's not I don't really have a question other than I I I hope and I'm sure we are right that we're looking at those things kind of and and I'm sure there are uh explanations and so forth but um I would be uh it would be I I would want to make sure that we're we're noticing that I guess and but and thank you for the presentation oh um I might be taking your question I don't know we'll see um yeah on slide 13 see see something say something um just it was topic that I recently was discussing um so when it says reporting anything you see or hear that may be concerning suspicious or dangerous I guess defining that helping helping students understand what might be concerning Behavior might be suspicious but might be dangerous um and I'm not saying that I it's just a something are you probably already doing it sure I think it's a a valid uh feedback um I I can't speak to that exact language that's going out at each and every building as to defining what's dangerous or suspicious um we did do some campaigning last year um with the help of communications to be able to p this out uh districtwide um but I don't know that I can articulate if we Define that piece yeah not just um you know strangers in the building acting weird you know but um you know also Behavior within the school of normal people that are just you know the commun I can tell you by some of the reports we received they're reporting everything okay um no I won't say that they're reporting everything but I think that um based on a lot of the reports we reive we do investigate quite a bit um but I think I what I hear you saying is that we need to be more purposeful and intentional um when we're educating our kids about what that means just because we say see something say something um we're okay with them reporting anything and everything whether it's suspicious or not um but I think there's some intentionality that we can absolutely and um I sent a few questions about Alis and I appreciate the responses one of the things um you know I still um kind of want to understand is uh with the two police um what do they call it supervised drills where it's kind of school resource officers re yeah re it's kind of reenacting the situation right or so let's be clear whenever we do analis drill we're not reenacting anything we're not simulating anything okay um it's not uh it's very clear in code that we're not allowed to um do those types of of drills um for fear that it would uh induce trauma um or would um create undue stress within the educational space um what we do talk about are things like um if um if an individual was in this particular location how do you respond is that an opportunity to barricade is that an opportunity to try and Escape or evade um we do actually do one of these um drills on a school Improvement day or teacher Institute day where we're talking just with staff because it's important if our staff are guiding our kids even though it's in a drill they they can feel comfortable that they're um teaching them or educating them on a particular method right um but we do above and beyond what is necessary for the Roe and for the state um this is something that's been a practice uh since before I uh inherited the position um and I just uh I think it's valid that we drill as much as we do because the the statistics are not decreasing reason um and we want our staff and our kids to be ready but the reality is is we can't predict every situation so um we want to make sure that they're getting the training that they need um kids are comfortable staff is comfortable the supervised uh drills are required but we don't supervise every in terms of uh police yeah I um I don't know just I wouldn't mind just seeing this um if there's ever a time where absolutely at kind of every level from you know early childhood elementary junior high high school I I wouldn't mind just getting a feel for this um because I do hear concerns I I I you know so I am just want to follow up with that and uh um you know student input I don't know if this is something that we've gotten student input about um just I don't know because it's one of the responses and I appreciate the cander is that it's it's a developing there's there's no solid um Effectiveness or research around it because it's relatively new and um um and then some of the other things I wrot was that student input was really important in in this particular uh instance so um and I don't know if you have anything to say right now but or if you want to take it back or yeah I think overall um you know I see the drills firsthand you know when we do them um and I will say you know we're encouraged to talk with our teachers with some time about you know different situations and where we would go um I do however feel that sometimes when we do these drills I think it is important to keep doing them and you know do them repetitively some students just kind of go through the motions almost like it's kind of just oh we do this every couple of months you know it's just kind of what we do and so it's not as taken seriously which you know it's just a drill but I think there does need to be that serious aspect to it as well um so I think there's that and then also kind of going back to the defining of like what is um like Behavior you should be looking out for I think you know it is important like to report all that but I think that is also an area to where students kind of maybe they don't know maybe they don't report enough so I think those are just some of the things that I would be able to say on that than thank you for that Luke um one of the things that I would like to add now building on that is just any crisis we may face in our lives requires a high level of mental acuity um real sharpness and flexibility and and I appreciate that we're thinking about the developmental way that we approach this and I know that I have not um frankly I'm learning about what the process is what this gives me confidence in is that there's a team who's really engaging in reflection and practice around it but I will say If you think about the research around fires when the nation moved into really thinking about the response for fires very few incidents happen because of the level of re regularity that we invite um our our students and our staff to engage uh a crisis where there is a threat an oncoming threat requires not that we we have all the answers but that the staff and really it's the staff the resp responsibility falls to the staff but also the students to have a sense of okay the direction we're going to respond how what's the type of mental acute what's the kind of sharpness I need to be thinking about um in response to those situations and and what I would say is that um we need to engage in both thinking about the developmental needs of our students and the adults frankly on at the same time requiring a rigorous regimen and thinking about practice and so I would say that you can't reduce both muscle memory yes there we go that's the word I was but one step further than muscle memory unlike a fire or a tornado where it's your your muscle memory is the same in these instances it's it's a judgment call So when you say mental acuity I think that's important but in in one instance you may run the next one you may fight the next one you may barricade so I think you know Mr Bell when you talk talked about um asking the the the during the drill asking them what would you do I think to Luke's point in order to make sure that the students and the staff are engaged I think we have to like make the drills engaging so that they have to make the decisions as opposed to just going through muscle memory because that's what's going to get them to understand that it's I'm not going to we don't want to get them to the point where they're stop dropping and rolling when they should be running so we refer to that there to me there's a situation fine line there um it is so I it is it is a fine line but can you do them though can you do these situational awareness type drills so we call it situational awareness right because there is that level of decision- making that has to happen yes um we rely heavily on the staff to be to be leading that yes obviously at our at our younger grades absolutely um and based on the developmental you know capacity of of the students as to how they respond in some of those situations we also have to be mindful though of those individuals are still humans they're still leading right and so um they may be in a place where they're not you know they just uh gotten a you know spilled their coffee you know and then all of a sudden this this alarm goes off or this drill goes off right and so it is muscle memory to a degree um and we want to continue to promote that practice um and there's many different ways in which we can do that we also need to make sure we we calibrate everyone's thinking to be the same um and so that's where those e-learning modules come in for us um uh and then we're able to kind of build on that based on the different buildings and what the building's needs may be yeah and don't get me wrong I I think the uh you know the training and it's I know all that is um very important and uh I just had my two cents I guess what I find S no no I've already gone what I find interesting too Luke and I'm interested if you feel this is that for students um this is very normalized for you this is a part of who you are you've always known this um my son and I were in a building um shopping and there was a a a situation emergency situation he had he knew exactly what to do I'm panicking and he's like Mom we're going to do this and it was just because this is what they're used to and I found that very sad and I'm really sorry if you guys are in that scenario but I also know that that muscle memory as someone who's been through a lot of Alish training the whole purpose of the muscle memory is to to intent to increase the chances of survival so yeah and I think you know since I was like in elementary school in little we've been you know hiding in a corner and like shutting the lights off but I think more recently which I think has been really important within the last couple of years we have been going over okay if this situation happens we're getting out of the buildings we're not just staying here and where do we go and I think that has been a really important step because we're not just saying okay let's just all hide in the corner which sometimes can be um an appropriate situation but sometimes you just need to get out of the building and so learning that um from students like The more we do it I do feel the more those situations come up and they go over the intercom and say you know this person and give a description and sometimes it can be a little scary for some students but um most of the time it's a really good um thing I feel that we can know when to leave and when it's a good time to stay in the classroom as well that makes my heart Happy actually you know that that what we're pushing out there is getting um to that end user which is you guys so thank you for that and there was there was the the scary part who was that's so part of that drill that's where my you know that's where I'm saying we need so part of that drill would not include um pretend gunfire or any of those things that would exacerbate the right want to make sure that they know what's going to be coming over the intercom um but we can talk about uh ways in which to do that make sure we're clearly articulating a drill make sure we're being more intentional when we make those announcements um for kits that may be experiencing right and that's the key thing is there's always intentionality at the start of the announcement that it is a drill because it can be scary um and we do offer options to opt out um so there is not only um different layers of drills as you mentioned as you kind of went through Elementary to Junior High to high school um but then also clear intentionality when we work with students okay we're going to let um jar go and then we're going to well I actually have comments oh no no you I made my I swear I so I actually want to talk about something that I feel was um first of all welcome Bailey to the team you joined a very important um and also very challenging team um but critical to our success and keeping our students safe um I talk a lot about psychological safety and I do think we have a lot of areas for opportunity there this is not directed towards any these are observations and I'm also going to kind of pry openen a little bit to something that um Mr Bell and I have worked on together um and I'm not going to be using names or anything but um social media is a huge threat to our students and I think that should be a part of this and I think that really needs to have its own area and then I really think and and I'm a huge advocate for if we don't put it on paper and we don't focus on it it's very hard to lose sight of it but we have to talk about bullying and I think that's part of this needs to be part of your presentation um and I just would like to talk about our culture our our community culture here there is not a week that goes by that there isn't something on um the asgo moms or Yorkville moms or Aurora moms talking about students getting bullied and so what I would encourage your your team which is very small and I recognize that you are covering 15,000 plus students um is maybe not just do the bare minimum what can we just do to get buy but how can we secure our community and how can we insulate it to the best of our capabilities which I know are stretched very thin but when something when a situation happens with students and parents we really need to learn how to deescalate just as we know an escalated child doesn't learn a student and a parent they're escalated in these situations are not hearing or rational at the time that that's happening and I have a handful of situations where we are so worried about following the process of what we need to do that we are forgetting that these are human beings that are very escalated at this point so I would really like to see social media and bullying as a part of your overall plan I think that they are and that's just my one person one board memb opin opion and then I also we talk a lot about Building Systems and processes and administrative procedures a lot they have been lacking and I know that Dr katti's team is working very hard on that but I also want to remind us until all of those are in place we cannot take punitive measures against staff members or teachers or students that maybe don't know the process and I continue to hear that that's happening and it's very disheartening so I just ask that all of our administrators and our parent and our principes and our assistant principles and counselors just remember if this was your daughter or your son or your grandchild or your godchild how would you you know expect to be treated in that situation and um I I I hope that we can just do better for our community and work on um insulating and protecting um our students and our families so thank you all right j i I was I was definitely going to end on a a trying in on a positive note and here's a little factoid for you uh you mention you kind of alluded to it in my lifetime I'm not going to tell you how old I am we've lost this many students in the United States to a to a fire in a public school so I I I like to think that that's hope that we can actually um accomplish a lot so we've lost zero now before my lifetime that's a different story but during my lifetime zero wow thank you so much you thank you both very much 7.1 we'll have our superintendent report from Dr katti one second I had it queued up and now I lost it that's all right we'll wait will wait we need a little Jeopardy music yes yes yes oh je well um lots to cover this evening and I just appreciate the the Investments and the comments and also the presentations that have been prepared this evening uh Miss Campbell and Mr ba uh Miss Campbell and Mr Bal thank you for your time and as well Dr conade and your leadership there um tonight I want to start with just uh some news I got a chance to observe some of our tennis last week and also Golf and uh 2023 iGo Co-op girls gol golf team won the SPC conference champ Championship with an undefeated record uh congratulations to these athletes yes big round of applause uh oh jeez oh yes yes hold on coach Chandler and his staff and good luck in the ihsa state playoffs 20 years ago the iGo Panthers 20 2003 varsity football team raised the IHS a78 State trophy to the Delight of its hundreds of follows after a double overtime Victory against Libertyville and Champagne Illinois OS Wego High School is excited to welcome back this team team this coming Friday as well as honored captains to celebrate this huge accomplishment prior to this year's OS homecoming game on September 29th we want to thank all of you who will participate in the special Gathering September 28th which is also my son's birthday is National Honor School uh I didn't know this till this week the National School parent group day we want to acknowledge the many contributions of parents across our district that help with projects big and small so many wonderful experiences for our students and staff wouldn't be possible without your partnership and leadership as we know that that trust is a foundation for academic Excellence this month Hispanic Heritage Month on September 15 through October 15 this is a time for us to recognize the contributions and influence of Hispanic and Latin Americans to the history culture achievements in the United States on a personal note I am proud of the long history of the Dual language program which I believe represents some of the best of this work and we want to honor that and I'm excited to know that this is a place before I came to this District I knew about this program in this District when I was a principal long time ago and this evening we were also reminded through the voices of our students and our families of how we still have a long way to go and I want to share with you my commitment and I know this board's commitment to raising the investment and commitment of this program until it is realized C we're nearing also the end of FS fasd Awareness Month um we hope that you have had a chance to follow our comments our feedback um in our content and our parent newsletters about this important work and the understanding required in advocate for those impacted by fetal alcohol Spectrum disorders our educational Community is a very diverse one as we know uh representing many backgrounds cultures and experiences we appreciate our differences and also about the way in which we have to learn to acknowledge what traditions in our community those may practice amongst our community are several students staff and families who practice Judaism last week rashash Shana the Jewish New Year and beginning of the 10 days of repentance this past Sunday into today our Jewish families observed yam kapor a day of atonement a solemn day but also one of reflection and renewal their rituals and traditions associated with riam kapor include fasting the entire day from sun down to sundown visiting the synagogue we wish our families a meaningful yam kapor last week I was joined by members of our district leadership team board members at an equity Leadership Institute this was held by the Midwest and plains Equity Assistance Center in Indianapolis this is one of four Regional Equity Assistance programs funded by the United States of Department the United States Department of Education this learning experience brought to the Forefront the importance of working towards our vision for diversity equity and inclusion it's not enough to think about how we bring all those to the table but rather how we design a table that is inclusive from the start speaking of which coming to the table I want to share with you that this coming week we have our first superintendent Advisory Group this is going to be held on Thursday this will be involved by there will be groups of parents um Educators and administrators from our every part of our school district and will'll meet four four times this will be an opportunity to engage through an online portal we're going to be exercising Community organizing through some digital experiences um share celebrations and obstacles and bring many voices to the table to provide diverse input to the district leadership team I do want to emphasize here that if you were not selected to formally participate in this part of it there will be additional opportunities and so please look out for those messages moving on to a very serious matter this evening here in the oigo community Unit School District 308 the safety and well-being of our students are at the Forefront of our mission you heard some of this tonight however tonight I want to go further to openly express our support for a victim in our community who bravely came forward when a teacher failed to prioritize student safety and engage engaged in grooming Behavior with a student we recognize the immense courage it takes to come forward in such difficult circumstances in response to this breach of trust the teacher involved will not only be permanently barred from teaching within our district but will also face comprehensive restrictions that prevent them from teaching anywhere else within the state state or country and will be issued a no trespass letter to ever be on sd308 grounds again furthermore we want to emphasize that our commitment our commitment to preventing such incidents from ever occurring within our districts again the implementation of Faith's law on July 1st is a significant milstone in our ongoing effort to safeguard our students this crew crucial legislation is a testament to the unwavering dedication and diligent work of our human resources staff and attorneys who have been Resolute in ensuring to ensuring the safety of our educational Community the Safety and Security and well-being ofu of our students are non-negotiable priorities for sd308 we will continue to take all necessary measures to create an environment where every student and staff can learn and Thrive without fear this unfortunate incident serves as a solemn reminder of the importance of our ongoing commitment to student safety and we we will relentlessly pursue this mission to the fullest extent possible thank you thank you Dr katti and thank you for your leadership in this area you know we as a board require a culture that is one where we do not tolerate um the harming of our students and um people anyone needs to know that those kinds of behaviors are not tolerated and that there's an expectation that um any kind of action or be or or actions on their part will be um will have severe consequences and that we want to provide a safe space for our students and a brave space for our staff to come forward when there are issues like this that happen so we want to make sure that the word is out that um not on our watch not on our watch okay 7.2 board committee reports so we had a finance and Facilities report since our last meeting um is there anything um for finan and Facilities that would like to be reported out we do on our board um on a on the board docs we have a document that's out there for our community to see regarding um what was discussed at our meetings and what were the takeaways and the action items that will go uh with that particular committee so our community has an opportunity to see it um if there's anything that anyone wants to say on that I will say that everything was reported on there that we did discuss we did actually make an amendment to our mission and we added communication which Amanda very kindly did already flawlessly say tonight so it's not represented on board docs but we did add communication to our mission that we are dedicated to transparency to communication and Clarity Clarity yeah I thought she was going to say it and then um I I'm not addressing anything specifically but we have been talking and we are looking forward to um with um Raphael to Bringing new financial reporting structures to uh the table and variance reporting and so forth so I do look forward to digging into all of that we've just only had one meeting so um we've got a lot of work ahead of us thank you okay 7.3 board member comments have any board member comments this week go ahead um you know I I certainly hear things loud and clear and thank you um thank you Dr katti for um everything you said um I found it interesting that you know one of the things that as a board member I always try and figure out is what's happening here that's unique to hear and then what's happening everywhere right uh and what are systematic problems and it was interesting today because at my own school and by the way sorry it's a homecoming week at my school so if you see this this is dressed like a teacher day so I took out the 31-year-old uh shooter shirt from Good Old Sono so sorry about that but it was how old you are yeah well no cuz I didn't tell you what year but but anyways narrows it down um but in my own School uh we were unable we're unable to do grab and go breakfast for the foreseeable future because we can't find people to work the job and um just so you know how this affects my students uh many of them have to go to a place called willo back and forth and so now to go stand in line in cafeteria is probably not going to happen and so we have students that are going to go without food that's basically what's going to happen because we can't find staff for this position and um my own wife is a Spanish teacher and uh for her to find a sub in her district is uh at this point problematic to say the least it affects her way more than me when she has to get a a guest teacher um as opposed to me the lowly social studies teacher and one of the things I found in my research on this topic there are 1,600 right now bilingual teacher positions not filled in the state of Illinois we're Beyond a crisis point but to bring this full circle to why I mentioned my students my students I asked them a question because I said hey how many of you are going into education none of them raised their hand zero we're already at a crisis point and I have students that out of that class size none of them are going into education I asked the next question how many of you uh you know someday way down the road are planning on having kids the majority who's going to teach them is what one of one of my students said like how are we going to have teachers that is a problem that's already here it already exists whether it's bus drivers whether it's par professionals whether it's lunch people to serve uh our nutrition to our our students and in many areas of our education system we're already at a crisis point and here's the problem it's not going to get better if I've got 11th and 12th graders and zero of them are going they're into education I've said this before at nauseum and I'll say it again if we and when I say we I'm including myself and I mean us as as a society continue to wait until the problem Falls at our doorstep we've waited too long it's too late at that point because most of us want something fixed in the immediate now and at that point it's too late and it was interesting because one of the things students start brainstorming well we can just get more people okay how you going to get more people we'll just have more kids great that will help in 20 years if you can pull that off it will not help now so um you know all these stories they they pain me to no end but I keep wanting us to understand the interconnectedness in this and us to understand all of these problems are happening and we have to work together to to try and get there and I'll be quiet after that so I'm going to play off that and say that you you're absolutely unequivocably right but I'm going to extend it with my comments to we're also seriously lacking again not just here but everywhere of parent participation in their Student Activities for example uh we could go to Tuesday I volunteered at the panther Marching Band review I worked in the concession stand it was great I had a great time the parents were wonderful the kids were the the review was wonderful my point is they were seriously lacking parent volunteers and and having been a concession stand manager in a in another school district for N9 years um you know it's just not gotten any better for some reason we think that someone not to worry because someone else will take care of it and that's just not the case and I think we as a whole need to realize that now having said that back to the review um again the kids put on a great show there were I think eight bands that came uh Crystal Lake showed up to this um the concession stand was organized chaos I mean that the parents did a great job they really had it down but there was a lot going on so um the whole experience was wonderful and and uh Dr katti I think you would agree that I think OE and oh really showed out though above and beyond okay all right good all right yeah if if we had to say so yes um not but love our Fine Arts without bias I love our progam not paral at all um but um but no the whole event was great but but again back to the point um parents out there if you you know if you're listening online or whatever um if you want you need to participate in your students education and that goes beyond just that goes beyond just the the traditional education part um you know be a part of who they are and what they're doing and and you know flip a few burgers or something you'll be glad you did that's it for me anybody else flip a few burgers or something a few Burgers I I don't have anything Amy do you have anything yeah I just have a um can't he hold on one second hold on one sec hold on we're g to get it we got to turn the mic up can you turn the mic up that little brown knob right there on the side try now Amy mic check all right can you hear yes yes yes okay good thank you uh I just also wanted to take a short moment to recognize Hispanic Heritage Month um because of just the personal connection that I have uh my husband's parents grew up in rural Mexico with a lot of poverty and not lots of access to education his father never learned to read or write and supported his family by traveling north to pick grapes in Southern California as well as other produce and he eventually migrated there with his family and his children just a generation later his grandchildren are now college graduates students business owners and more and I share this not to share a family history but demonstrate the power of education and uplifting all members of our community and to join in celebration of a culture that has enriched our country our community and has over and over again demonstrated the power of a strong public education system so I hope you all take a moment this uh month uh and enjoy that culture uh and celebrate alongside myself and my family as well thank you thank you thank you Amy beautiful Madam president may I add one thing I want to invite I think it's appropo when we think about investments in education we actually were recipients this month um of a 400,000 teacher retention Grant um I think that's uh led by Dr Kade and Dr zmy um and working with um our team I want to invite Dr uh zwy to speak to this briefly good evening uh yes tonight we will be bringing a recommendation of a very exciting candidate to join us as a director of Planning and Development uh the primary responsibility will be uh create the creation of a teacher residency uh program there are uh a few throughout the state and we expect to be uh a leader amongst them uh we'll be taking our our time to grow some Partnerships with universities uh in addition to uh building our teacher Network we'll be looking at a grow your own uh track as well as a aspiring leadership um cohort for the future thank you good you want to say go ahead no no go ahead um I want to thank the ASO Co-op girls golf team you stole my thunder Dr katti for the invitation to their SBC Conference tournament last week takes a lot to get me somewhere at 700 a.m.

⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above