And so we took that on as a challenge. and 64% of the teachers surveyed picked having time to collaborate as the the top activity they wanted in their profession. So we um Jason will talk a little bit more about the rest of this, but we've shared this in newsletters, we've shared it at the board meeting, we've shared it at a couple of different work sessions. So Jason can kind of hit the highlights of this. Yeah. And I think the chart in front of you is one we shared when we talked about the student start time changes. And really what's changed is we've gone back to each of our building level guiding coalitions a couple times and again to our corporation just to get some input back from all of our staff groups about this change. Um on the next slide just as a reminder these are the start times that the board did approve at their February meeting.
Symptoms are slur and nasal speech, difficult chewing or swallowing, muscle weakness affecting an arm, leg or the neck, weakness associated with the muscle cramps and twitching in the arm, shoulder and tail. The cause of ALS is unknown although scientists do believe that it has something to do with genetics. Um there is no treatment known to known for ALS although there is medication that you can take to slow it down. It involves rusal and edervon. Um the conclusion ALS is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It progresses the generation of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It is often called the Gary disease after a baseball player who died from the disease. This disease is very important to be aware of because the disease can start off as something small and within time become something very big. Thank you. I got a question for you.
And so I'm hoping to have a report for you uh midsummer to at the end of summer to really talk about the middle school because the HVAC co the electrical costs there are are larger than what we would expect given the size of the building. Um we will have a closed session today to talk about a uh student issue but it will have no action afterwards. Um and that's really it. We're closing up the year and starting to look at uh various aspects as we do that getting ready for next year. Awesome. Thank you for that report. We'll move on to our items for action. The first one is the approval of the consolidated district plan. This is one of those yearly tasks. This is the document that is multi-paged and we fill it into the Illinois State Board of Education, also known as ISBY.
U Miss Conrad's begun um executing her communication plan on this to ensure parents have all of the pertinent information they need to be ready for school to start next year. Um as we entered this conversation, it's an interesting one. This is really a conversation about minimums. We talk about the minimum amount of time. We totally entered this conversation and still fully acknowledge that many of our teachers work well beyond these numbers. But we do have to have a basis of comparison. And so what's in front of you is a comparison of the length of teacher workday um and the number of teacher work days uh for 26 schools that are like us both in size or demographics or in proximity. And you can kind of see where we fell on the average there. Um our elementary teacher day is currently 7 hours and 15 minutes.
How did you get interested in ALS? Um my teacher, Miss Pierce, she wanted to um I heard from a bird that she that she wanted to learn about it. And I figured since it was an option, why not take it and maybe show off, you know, tell her something and maybe she'll learn something from one of her. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for volunteering. Oh my gosh. You're welcome to stand up in front of these guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Applause] I had a cousin that died of illness. I had a friend and terrible dizzy. Pull the microphone up so it's closer to your mouth. There you go. My name is Owen Curtis and I'm in 8th grade in life academy. Today I will be pres presenting about Parkinson's disease. The nervous system helps all parts of the body communicate with each other.
Um it basically says that we are willing to follow all of the rules that the federal government sets for us and the state government sets for us for those grants. Um and so we recommend that the board approve the consolidated district plan as presented. Perfect.
Our secondary is 7 hours and 7 and a half hours and the average of the schools is 7 hours and 40 minutes. Similar comparison there on teacher days we ask our teachers to work 184 days and 185 is actually about the average of this list. Again these are minimums. We fully understand teachers work beyond this. Um on the next slide then just kind of talking about some of the changes. So we did an initial survey and we got a lot of feedback from our staff kept having those meetings and conversations. Um and as as as Dr. Long mentioned earlier, it was very important um when we found a big opportunity here and that came out of that um additional time with teachers by shortening that student day. We found that we had some time for additional blocks of time with our teachers. And today we're going to talk about two different blocks.
Park communicate with each other. Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements such as shaking, stiffness, difficulty with balance and coordination. Symptoms are usually beginning to gradually worsen over time. As as the disease progresses, people may have difficulty walking and talking. Disease overview. Parkinson's disease is a move progressive movement disorder that of the nervous system. causes neur nerve cells called ner neurons and parts of the brain to weaken and become damaged and die leading to symptoms that conclude problems movement tremor stiffness and impaired balance comp the components are brains the brain the spinal cord and neurons the functions the main functions are receive sensory information processes the information it receives and respond with motor output Causes age of age. The risk of Parkinson's disease increases with age. Usually it starts around 50 or older. Average age of onset is around seed 70.
Any questions regarding the consolidated plan hearing? None. Would you like to make a motion to approve it? I'll make the motion. Thank you, Tyson. Second. I'll second. Thank you, Andrew. Roll call, please. Adam Hemp, yes. Yes. Andrea Corey, yes. Kelly Moyer, yes. Greg Meyer, yes. Lisa Schumacher, yes. Tyson Search, yes. Greeter, yes. All right, that passes unanimously. Next item is the approval of the 2024 20 to 20 probably 25 to 26 board of education meeting dates. The third Thursday is the recommendation. It is when we always have our board meetings with November being the only exception. Uh we do the Wednesday before the third Thursday in November so that the joint annual conference uh in Chicago will not be missed. Um, we have in the past pushed an August meeting earlier to have it before the start of the school year, but that causes a lot of consternation with the bills and the timing of everything.
Um but you can kind of see this is the feedback as it came in. This this really came in from October till about the February time frame when we were building these out both from our staff and from our admin. And when we look at the next slide then those two new blocks of time that we really identified is we didn't want to give up the PLC process. We currently have the early release time for that. And so Dr. Simmers and her team has worked very diligently on this chart and are working with principles um for next year on this but kind of gives a structure a little framework for what a PLC or PD day could look like. There'll be some blending of the two. So there's a lot of professional learning that happens during a PLC day and vice versa for PD. And so this is just kind of the framework that we'll start working from, but they're going to work on laying that out and making the best use of that time to get that collective teacher efficacy that Dr.
Family history. Having one or more first-degree relative such as parents or siblings with Parkinson's disease increases your risk. Gender. Men are more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than men many other women are. Risk factors exposure to toxins ongoing exposure to herbicides and pesticides may slightly increase your recent Parkinson's disease. Head trauma, diabetes, smoking, although some studies suggest it may have a protective effect. Certain medications and antisc psychotics of cases. Symptoms rigid muscles. You may have stiff muscles in any part of your body. Your muscles may feel tense, painful. And your arm movements may be short. Speech changes. You may softly or quickly slur or hesitate before talking. Your speech may be flat or monotone without typical speech patterns. Treatment surgery. Deep brain stimulation DBS. A proc surgical procedure that involves implanting electrodes into the brain that to simulate areas involved in movement control medications. Lev levodopa the primary medication for Parkinson's.
We have four weeks between meetings and that's much better. And so we would like to recommend that the board continue with the third Thursday as recommended with November being the Wednesday before as the only real exception. Any comments, concerns, questions? Everybody good with a third Thursday except for November? Anybody like make a motion to approve the board of education meeting dates? I'll make a motion. Thank you. Second. Okay, Kelly. All in favor?
Long talked about. So since our meeting in February when we you can go to the next slide there, Kristen. Thank you. Since our meeting in February, we spent more time talking to our teachers and actually received a piece of input from a guiding coalition member about um have we talked about maybe trimming a little bit more time off the teacher day and blocking that together for something that we might need in a more purposeful way. And one thing that has been kind of sticking out in this whole conversation is we currently give our teachers release time to complete some required trainings. The state of Indiana requires a lot of training required trainings annually of our teachers and even on the every two and threeyear increment they require more and additional training and so we giving that release time right now takes them away from face toface time that we could leverage on w student waiver days or on professional learning days that they have.
It increases dopamine levels in the brain. It is often combined with card caroba or sorry that one to prevent side effects and collagenics. These medications reduce tremors and rigidity. Conclusion inclusion the nervous system is a very important part of the body. For example, the the brain receives message and sends out messages to different parts of the body. also learns function by sending chem chemical and electrical messages. All in all, there is the nervous system is a very important interesting and very interesting system. Okay. So, how long did it take you to do the research? Um, I think with the help of my teachers, probably maybe 3 to 4 days. 3 to 4 days. Yes. I see you have some citations down there. Were they mostly uh internet citations or Okay. And you had to read all those nasty words to Thank you very very much.
Any opposed? Any extensions? All right. Perfect. Next item is the approval of the athletic trainer agreement through 2028. This has been a uh company that we've been with pre me being here. We've been with ATI for a long time. Uh they are a good company. They work well. Uh last year or the year before, we really did an examination of other companies um and possibly even getting our own athletic trainer and just administratively it's much easier to stay with them. This is a three three-year contract um that will allow us to plan for the budgetary needs of it. uh administration recommends that the board approve the athletic trainer agreement through 2028.
And so what what we actually came up with was a nice proposal that trimmed five minutes off of each PLC and PD day. Um we then kind of block all that time together. We get about six hours in a school year. some years or more, we're just going to use six hours for for our purpose and and that's the time that we will give to those required trainings. So, we get back that face-to-face time that we really want. Um it does then give teachers some time to execute these trainings and hit the deadlines that we have. Many of these trainings will be completed either online or at home. Um but there will be a few that might require especially the suicide prevention training. There's a face-to-face component on site every three years that we will bring them in and count that toward this time. Um, but again, the accountability here is just completing and hitting those deadlines that Miss Brown and her department work on um, so much.
Thank you. [Applause] Yes, sir. YouTube channel so they can watch it so they can watch themselves on TV. Y sounds like a deal. Great job, guys. Thank you. That was wonderful. Thank you, crew. The whole crew. The whole crew. Very proud of you. Assumption. She has a second job. She had to go tonight. We're missing her tonight. But well, make sure that she gets congratulations, too. Yes. It was very nice. Thank you. It's nice to see what the what the kids do. Item 4.1, superintendence report. Uh, Madame President and board members, you have the uh the usual monthly reports. Uh, if you have questions, I'll try to answer them. uh go to the cumulative report. I think that's where it is. Yes. Yeah. Keep in mind that it's not this year is not a really good one to compare to last year because we're including data this year that we did not have last year.
Any questions regarding the athletic trainer contracts? Hearing none. I may like to make a motion to approve the athletic trainer contract or agreement through 2028. I'll make a motion. Thank you, Lisa. Second. I'll second. Seconds. Thank you. Roll call, please. Here Corey, yes. Kelly Moyer, yes. Greg Meyer, yes. Lisa Schumacher, yes. Tyson, yes. Freed, yes. Adam, yes. Perfect. Unanimous again. Next item is the approval of the ad sales with digital scoreboards. As you're all aware, we are getting new internal and external scoreboards at the multi-purpose field and in our current gym. They are up in the gym. then they will be uh connected with the power and the fiber I believe over this this break holiday. Um in the next couple of weeks you will see the large scoreboard outside at the multi-purpose field coming down. The fiber has been run, electric has been run and they are um between the press box and the the scoreboard.
So, what does all that look like? Well, I wanted to lay out then the three schedules starting with the high school. On the left's our current schedule, and you'll see where that um, the different color blocks. So, again, Miss Conrad really wanted to dress this up and make it look nice for you, but we chose to keep it in a format that we've been using with our staff this entire process. So, um, it's not as nice looking, but it does get the job done. Um the time in the purple is when teachers are actually responsible for supervising students. They're not in their classroom maybe teaching a lesson yet, but they're traversing the building. They're coming into the classroom doing some bell work. That's what you see when you see purple. Same at the end of the day. It's it's the release time. Um in the middle is that blue block of student instructional time.
All right. particularly the bus uh because they're now reporting bus ride, you know, the bus discipline and that has skewed all of the data. So, it looks like we're doing worse than we have in the past. And that's not the case. Um and here's here's a here's a case in point. Um I don't remember how many uh disciplinary hearings that um Miss Aiman had done last year with Fox Creek uh at this point in the year. Uh but this year five oh that's five. Great. That's it. Okay. We have one one pending so six. So it's April midappril and six. Um, and that's um and and that's a testament to a lot of work on culture and consistent um uh behavior management and high expectations and things like that that have been going on um uh there and at the middle school as well. But the big difference this year is at Fox Creek.